The American photographer Deborah Turbeville (1932 – 2013) challenged and reshaped both fashion photography and the ways of working with the photographic image in an artistic context. She belonged to no particular school or movement, yet from the 1970s onwards developed a deeply personal visual language – characterised by a distinctive aesthetic in which timelessness, melancholy, and a sense of patina permeate her photographs.
After a period as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar and commissions for publications such as Vogue, Deborah Turbeville moved away from the commercial logic of fashion photography. Instead, she used fashion as one element within a broader artistic practice, where the images carried narratives, atmospheres, and psychological states. In her photographs, women appear in evocative environments – abandoned interiors, corridors, bathhouses, and greenhouses. The images are often blurred, overexposed, or deliberately manipulated: scratched, toned, or fragmented. Through this treatment, the boundary between photography and other image forms dissolves.
The exhibition “Photocollage” traces her artistic exploration over four decades – from fashion photography to more personal and experimental works.
Turbeville travelled and worked between New York, Mexico, Paris, and Saint Petersburg. The exhibition “Photocollage” traces her artistic exploration over four decades – from fashion photography to more personal and experimental works. It presents an extensive selection of her handmade collages, where the photograph becomes part of a larger whole. Images are cut, torn, pinned, layered, and combined with other materials in compositions that approach painting or storyboard-like sequences. By foregrounding her work with material and process, the exhibition highlights a frequently overlooked aspect of Turbeville’s practice and offers a deeper understanding of her significance for the history of photography.
Curator
Nathalie Herschdorfer.
The exhibition is organised by Moderna Museet and produced by Photo Elysée, Lausanne, in collaboration with MUUS Collection, New York.
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