Deborah Turbeville – Photocollage

Unique style

Deborah Turbeville mainly worked for leading fashion magazines and brands, but emphatically did not consider herself a fashion photographer. From her earliest work in the 1970s, she had a recognizable style, with sepia tones coloring her black and white work, and using overexposure and soft focus to obscure her images. In her work, enigmatic female figures pose in public spaces and interiors of monumental buildings, or wander through desolate winter landscapes. The images evoke a dreamed world or a time that has already passed, and – in the case of her commercial assignments – prioritize creating an atmosphere over selling a brand.

Rich inner world

As one of the few women in a male-dominated profession, Deborah Turbeville chose a path at odds with that of her colleagues. She looked for models whose faces suggested a rich inner world. They were often people who did not see themselves as models and needed some convincing before allowing themselves to be photographed. Turbeville then shows them lost in thought, in relaxed poses bordering on lethargy – nothing like the modern, sexy and confident women seen in other reports in the same fashion magazines.

Photographing, editing, reprinting, merging, pinning

Turbeville's artistic signature transcended the process of photography alone. She experimented in the darkroom and continued on the studio table, where the prints were torn to pieces, scratched, burned or covered with tape. In this way, she gave brand new prints a patina, making the works seem to come from another time. The result is a breathtaking collection of manipulated, torn and pieced together works of art. The exhibition at Huis Marseille brings together authentic vintage prints that are characterized by this special materiality.