Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Matinee: 'Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage'
1 February 2025
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 589th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage.
Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is a retrospective of the fashion photographer's work that was exhibited at the Photo Elysée in Lausanne and is now at The Photographers’ Gallery in London through Feb. 23.
The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, director of the Photo Elysée, and Karen McQuaid, senior curator at The Photographers’ Gallery. Both appear in this 5:08 video.
Turbeville (1932-2013) began her career as a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar before turning to photography in her fifties. Her images would appear in ads for Bloomingdale's, Bruno Magli, Nike, Ralph Lauren and Macy's, among others.
Throughout the video we are treated to her edgy fashion images. "Anti-fashion," Herschdorfer calls it. Turbeville brought an element of the cinema to fashion photography that was all color on glossy paper until she came along.
McQuaid describes her approach as distressing prints, "interfering" with them. They were monochrome and taped and scratched. The "pristine print" did not interest her.
That irreverence extended even to the frames she used for her works, which are also represented in the exhibition (and which we see in the video).
The works suggest to the viewer that they are in "an old world," Herschdorfer says, without being able to say exactly when it was. "And this element of timelessness was very important to Deborah Turbeville."