This is what a townhouse looks like...!

Coinciding with Vogue’s Fashion Night Out in London, was the launch of a fashion related exhibition curated by Jules Wright from the Wapping Bankside Gallery in London on September 8th, 2011. The exhibition highlights a selection of works by fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville and takes place at the Donna Karan flagship store in the West End from 9th September to 15th October 2011.

Deborah Turbeville’s influential and avant-garde exhibition follows the successful Lillian Bassman exhibition at the store. Her out-of-age iconic style, the way she manages to illustrate sophistication, aristocracy and sensuality in her photographs is her signature. The location of the exhibition couldn’t be any more perfect. It belongs to the fashion world, and Donna Karan is the perfect store for those photographs to be showcased.

The Fashion Pictures © Deborah Turbeville

Her vision is one of poetry and decadence. Her works are both commercial and artistic. She seeks the scenes for her dramatic perspective with ardor. Portraits of faded women in turn of the century locations. A simultaneous touch of the past and the present. She spends as much time on post-production as she does on finding the right location and the right model. She uses scratches, stains and masks her photographs to give them the authentic look of age and timelessness.

Born in the US, she started her fashion-related career as a fashion editor. However, she soon realized that her interest was predominantly focused on fashion photography, and thus launched herself into that direction. Over the years she has travelled extensively, between the US, Mexico, Europe, and Russia, the latest being the country that inspired her the most. She is most famous for the 1975 controversial “Bathhouse” American Vogue photographs, and the “Woman in the Woods” series of 1977 for Italian Vogue.

“Perhaps the most interesting thing about my photographs is that they are a little bit of an enigma; they are hard to place” she says.

For those who are passionate about fashion and photography, “Deborah Turbeville: The Fashion Picture” is a must have in any personal library. It is scheduled for publication in October 2011 and will feature some of her classics and contemporary photographs.