(some of her photographs have been compared to
the work of filmmaker Alain Resnais), but other-
wise she was an inexperienced photographer. How-
ever, her initial difficulties with focus and exposure
were seen as a fresh approach to fashion imagery.
Her choices of a 35-mm camera and frequent use of
natural lighting were also a departure from the
status quo. As she gained experience Turbeville
continued to break rules, sometimes presenting
scratched, taped-over and ripped prints as finished
work. Her initial efforts were in color, because she
lacked darkroom skills, although she has subse-
quently worked in both black and white and
color. The color palette she chooses is typically
soft and fairly monotone, resembling gentle hand
coloring. Her black and white prints are toned or
hand colored at times. When using Polaroid film,
she may leave the prints to discolor, another way to
achieve her offbeat look.
In addition to advertising and editorial fashion
work, Turbeville has published a number of books,
some overlapping with her fashion photography
and some featuring independent projects.Maquil-
lage(1975), printed as the catalogue for an early
exhibition at the Rizzoli Gallery in New York, fea-
tured what would normally be the discarded Polar-
oid images taken to check lighting on a fashion set,
combined with handwritten bits of letters to her
from models.Wallflower (1978) featured images
previously seen in Conde ́Nast publications along
with contact sheets.Unseen Versailles(1981) was a
personal project facilitated by her Doubleday
editor, Jacqueline Onassis, in which she captured
the closed rooms, back stairs, and empty gardens of
the French palace. Models were used at times, but
the emphasis was on the place. She used a similar
approach with Rhode Island mansions inNewport
Remembered, in which she wrote, ‘‘I like dino-
saurs...whether we’re speaking of the palaces of
the Czars, the Venetian palaces of the Doges, or
Versailles...I see lives played out against these back-
drops, these now vacant halls. That’s what I’m
after. Their past.’’ In Claus von Bulow’s review of
that book he wrote: ‘‘Ms. Turbeville’s photographs
are beautifully shot through fog and cheesecloth,
creating partly an aura of an old family album, and
partly an atmosphere of decomposition and decay.’’
The commercial and personal work of Deborah
Turbeville flow smoothly together, and both have
been embraced by the fine art establishment, as
typified by a solo show at the Centre Georges
Pompidou in 1986. Her photographs have been
shown frequently in galleries in New York as well
as in cities around the world, including Paris,
Tokyo, Milan, and Mexico City. Exhibitions of
her work have been unorthodox at times. In New
York in 1981,Unseen Versailleswas presented in
the form of torn prints that appeared to be ran-
domly pinned to brown paper on the gallery walls.
This approach was seen by some as distracting,
while Deborah Phillips felt that the decay of Ver-
sailles ‘‘was effectively echoed in the fragmented
nature of this imaginative installation.’’ Ten years
later, pictures from Latin America were presented
in a similar fashion.
Deborah Turbeville has lived in New York and
Paris. In the 1980s she bought a house in Mexico,
andstarteda series of work in Mexico and Guatemala
that was exhibited in 1991–1992 in the United States
and in Europe. She has also been attracted to Russia.
Over recent years she has photographed a number of
Russian palaces, and in 2003 she taught photography
in St. Petersburg through a Fulbright scholarship. She
lives in New York and continues to pursue personal
and commercial photographic projects.
NancyA. Breslin
Seealso:Arbus, Diane; Beaton, Cecil; Conde ́Nast;
Fashion Photography; Newton, HelmutBiography
Born in Medford, Massachusetts, 1937. Attended photogra-
phy seminar with Richard Avedon and Marvin Israel,- Design assistant to Claire McCardell, New York,
1956–1958; Editorial Assistant,Ladies’ Home Journal,
New York, 1960–1963; Fashion Editor,Harper’s Bazaar,
New York, 1963–1965;Diplomat Magazine, 1966; Associ-
ate Fashion Editor,Mademoiselle, New York, 1967–1971.
Freelance fashion photographer since 1972, with editorial
clients includingHarper’s Bazaar,Mademoiselle,Vogue,
Nova, Zoom, W, and others, and commercial clients
including Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Macy’s, Bruno
Magli, and others. Grammy Award, best album cover:The
Boys in the Trees(Carly Simon), 1979; Clio Award, De
Beers Campaign (N.W. Ayer), 1980–1981; American Book
Award (Graphic Awards: Illustration, Photographs) for
Unseen Versailles, 1982; Fashion Group Lifetime Award
for Fashion Photography, 1989; Honorary Doctorate of
Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Boston, 1993; Alfred Eisen-
staedt Photography Award (Best image depicting the
industry of personal style), 1999; Fulbright Scholarship
(Art, Russia), 2002. Living in New York, New York.
Individual Exhibitions
1976 Cameraworks; Los Angeles, California
1977 Sonnabend Gallery; New York, New York
Ko ̈lnischer Kunstverein; Cologne, GermanyArt ‘45;
Montreal, Canada
1978 Newport Museum; Newport, Rhode Island
Wallflower; Sonnabend Gallery, New York, New York
Galerie Wilde; Cologne, France
1979 Sonnabend Gallery; New York, New YorkTURBEVILLE, DEBORAH