JT: I try to be – obviously it's a silly thing to say in a way – but to be sensitive to the subject I'm photographing, obviously. And I try to follow it. And of course, I wouldn't ask anything which I wouldn't feel it's right to ask the subject to do. And then we talked about being in Amsterdam, and what we could do. And then we talked about all these museums and everything. And I said, 'Oh, do you have a spare moment? We can go to the Rijksmuseum.'  And then you were so enthusiastic about it. And I think this whole portfolio is in a way about playfulness, and carefulness and curiosity. And that's how we both meet each other in a way that we are very similar in a way.

DV: And totally, that's also what I feel, you know. I think that's also energy of yours that, that's so playful, also just seduces people to get out of their constraints, no?

JT: Yes, yes. And to feel normal.

DV: It just created this idea that, Okay. My father is gonna write this letter until the day that he dies. So conceptually, it was structured that when people pay 300 euros, then he sits in his office and sends this goodbye transcript, goodbye letter, to anybody that orders it. And there's a lot of aspects in it, but what it taught me is that it's true. I think an artist's best work should be the cheapest one. And I think that set it at standard for all my thinking and work later on.

JT: I see what you mean, yes.

DV: And so, as of today, he has written like almost three-thousand letters or something. And funny story. So the first year he was just happy. I gave him 100 euros and then he would buy it right away. And since he didn't read French, he just did it. And so it's also like this idea of making calligraphy or language into an image, because he knows the alphabet, but he has no clue what he's writing.

JT: And it's quite important that you can't articulate the work sometimes.

DV: I think meaning has to be suspended. Because if we know the answer of things – I love that I was raised Catholic. But I was afraid of the priest and teachers, I also met some really nice ones too. But most of them, it's like this idea of providing answers. And I don't think we're so interested in that.

JT: Mmm.

DV: Questions are more interesting than answers, right?

Excerpt from Middle Plane Issue No.12 (Spring/Summer 2026). Read the full interview by ordering your copy here.

Photographer: Juergen Teller