PHOTOCOLLAGE - DEBORAH TURBEVILLE (ENGLISH) BOOK

American photographer Deborah Turbeville (1934–2013) was a pioneering figure: a woman working in a male-dominated era. Her unique visual signature has been recognisable since her emergence as a major talent in the 1970s with her work featuring in publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Nova, and The New York Times, as well as collaborating with fashion brands including Comme des Garçons, Guy Laroche, and Charles Jordan.

This publication focuses on the area of Turbeville’s practice where her artistic genius lies: photocollage. Unlike her contemporaries, Turbeville deliberately played with her images — photocopying, cutting, scraping, and pinning them together, writing words in the margins, and creating narrative sequences. Her work is far from the single, polished image; it inhabits a liminal zone between art and commerce.

Based on extensive research in Deborah Turbeville’s archive conducted by Nathalie Herschdorfer in collaboration with MUUS Collection, the presented work encompasses both commercial and personal projects, many of which are published for the first time. With texts by Vince Aletti, Felix Hoffmann, and Anna Tellgren, and an interview with Carla Sozzani, whose work for Vogue Italia was key to boosting Turbeville’s career, this book reveals the ways in which Turbeville redefined fashion photography, moving away from sexual provocation and stereotypes imposed by male photographers to construct an idea of femininity on her own terms.

Published in connection with a major touring exhibition that opened in late 2023 at Photo Elysée in Lausanne, this is a highly desirable and collectible volume for all who appreciate fashion photography, its history, and the image-makers who have explored the boundaries of creative expression and experimentation.

Language: English.