With a melancholic perspective, she points her camera into every nook and cranny throughout the palace, searching for some mystery or faded luxury. Her images capture the former royal residence in all its ghostly immensity, standing in the shadows, guarded by little more than an army of dusty statues. She spent a whole winter there and presented her work in a book, Unseen Versailles, in 1981. Fortunately, thanks to Jackie Kennedy Onassis – an admirer and a friend! – she was finally granted permission to photograph the estate during its renovation. She discovered the Château de Versailles, but was refused access for a fashion shoot. In Turbevilles Versailles, the once-glimmering, gilded palace stood barren, the imperialistic flame burned out long ago almost-empty rooms have sheets.

In the late 1970s, Turbeville was living in Paris. Her photographic style is also distinct she wouldn’t think twice about tearing up or stamping on her photos to lend them an aged appearance, a lived experience, or imperfection – much like life itself. However, her work has never been as celebrated as that of her contemporaries such as Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. Deborah Turbeville (American, 1938) Born and raised in New England, Deborah Turbeville moved to New York at the age of twenty to.

Her photographs have been featured in the most fashionable magazines, from Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar under Diana Vreeland. “I’m not really a fashion photographer.” Yet the label stuck with her all her life. “Fashion takes itself more seriously than I do,” said Deborah Turbeville (1932-2013) in an interview with the New Yorker in 2011.

Deborah turbeville versailles