Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage

Wed 09 Oct 2024 - Sun 23 Feb 2025

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage highlights the work of a truly innovative, American fashion photographer, Deborah Turbeville (1932-2013) who transformed fashion imagery into avant-garde art.

Black and white collage of various portraits of a woman cut and pasted together

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage

Wed 09 Oct 2024 - Sun 23 Feb 2025

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage highlights the work of a truly innovative, American fashion photographer, Deborah Turbeville (1932-2013) who transformed fashion imagery into avant-garde art.

Fashion takes itself more seriously than I do. I’m not really a fashion photographer.

- Deborah Turbeville in The New Yorker

Deborah Turbeville's signature dreamlike and melancholic style became recognisable with her earliest works in the 1970s: enigmatic female figures, cloudy skies, wintry nature and abandoned, decaying surroundings. She deliberately distanced herself from the typical glamourous, polished aesthetic that dominated fashion at the time. 

Photograph of five women standing and posing in a bathhouse.

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage will present Turbeville's trailblazing photographic explorations, from fashion photos to her very personal work. Bringing together unique pieces, the exhibition will show Turbeville's highly personal artistic universe which has been credited with transforming fashion imagery into avant-garde art.

She experimented with the developing process, from the darkroom to the studio table. She ripped, cut and tore her photographs; manipulated, pinned and glued them together to create unique hybrid objects. Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage will offer a new appreciation of Turbeville's ground-breaking contribution to the history of photography. 

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is organised by The Photographers’ Gallery, produced by Photo Elysee in collaboration with MUUS collection. The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée, and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Advance tickets are available to book now.