Deborah Turbeville

Photocollage

Malmö, 2.5 2026 – 27.9 2025

The American photographer Deborah Turbeville (1932–2013) challenged and reshaped both fashion photography and the ways of working with the photographic image in an artistic context. She belonged to no particular school or movement, yet from the 1970s onwards developed a deeply personal visual language – characterised by a distinctive aesthetic in which timelessness, melancholy, and a sense of patina permeate her photographs.

DEBORAH TURBEVILLE – PHOTOCOLLAGE
2.5 2026 – 27.9 2026
Curator: Nathalie Herschdorfer
The exhibition is organised by Moderna Museet and produced by Photo Elysée, Lausanne, in collaboration with MUUS Collection, New York.
The exhibition is shown at Floor 2

Moderna Museet Malmö presents two parallel exhibitions: “Deborah Turbeville – Photocollage” and “Ikram Abdulkadir – Soft Focus”. Installed side by side on Level 2, the exhibitions each take fashion and portrait photography as their point of departure. In both artists’ practices, people are at the centre – in images marked by presence, atmosphere, and a sense of timelessness.

After a period as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar and commissions for publications such as Vogue, she moved away from the commercial logic of fashion photography. Instead, she used fashion as one element within a broader artistic practice, where the images carried narratives, atmospheres, and psychological states. In her photographs, women appear in evocative environments – abandoned interiors, corridors, bathhouses, and greenhouses. The images are often blurred, overexposed, or deliberately manipulated: scratched, toned, or fragmented. Through this treatment, the boundary between photography and other image forms dissolves.

Turbeville travelled and worked between New York, Mexico, Paris, and Saint Petersburg. The exhibition “Photocollage” traces her artistic exploration over four decades – from fashion photography to more personal and experimental works. It presents an extensive selection of her handmade collages, where the photograph becomes part of a larger whole. Images are cut, torn, pinned, layered, and combined with other materials in compositions that approach painting or storyboard-like sequences. By foregrounding her work with material and process, the exhibition highlights a frequently overlooked aspect of Turbeville’s practice and offers a deeper understanding of her significance for the history of photography.

Deborah Turbeville, Comme des Garçons, Escalier dans Passage Vivienne From the series "Comme des Garçons," Paris, France, November 1980.
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection 2025

Deborah Turbeville, Untitled (Irina Kirsanova), from the series Studio St. Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1996 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, Untitled, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1975 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, Untitled, from the series L’Heure Entre Chien et Loup, Mantua, Italy, 1977 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, Utan titel (Untitled-Asser-LUtan titel (Asser Levy Bathhouse) from the series Bathhouse, New Yorkevy-Bathhouse-from-the-series-Bathhouse-New-York_after-1975_f_©Deborah-Turbeville-MUUS-Collection_ModernaMuseet_press, after 1975 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, From the series Passport, ca 1990 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, From the series Passport, ca 1990 Courtesy of MUUS Collection Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville, From the series Passport, ca 1990 Courtesy of MUUS Collection, Copyright Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

black and white photo with woman in park

Deborah Turbeville , At Versailles (Self-Portrait), from the series "Unseen Versailles," Versailles, France, 1980 Courtesy of MUUS Collection © Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection