Otherworldly: Deborah Turbeville Photographs
Curated by Denise Birkhofer
The Image Center, Toronto
January 17 - April 6, 2024
This exhibition from The Image Centre collection presents more than 40 photographic works spanning the innovative career of American photographer Deborah Turbeville (1932–2013), from her major fashion commissions of the 1970s to the more personal projects of her later years. Widely credited with evolving the editorial genre of fashion photography into an art form, Turbeville de-emphasized the clothed figure in her pioneering compositions, whose often-decaying settings reinforce their dreamlike atmosphere. Experimental techniques such as soft focus, the use of printing papers with varied tones and textures, distressing or tearing of the print, and the application of masking tape or other collage elements contribute to the photographs’ otherworldly aesthetic.
