The L.A. photographer’s fantastic set designs and multiple exposures elevate even the most mundane subjects to heroic proportions.
By Eric Rudolph
Young Kate Turning’s fantasy-fueled work was a bit too fashion-forward for the U.S. market in the late 1980s.
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“Jumping Jill,” an ad shot for Bacardi O Rum, is an example of Kate Turning’s colorful, ebullient style. Copyright © Kate Turning
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In those days, Turning was working as a newly minted photographer in the fantasy-friendly pop music industry, and her work was selling well. But she didn’t want to be limited to record packages, promo shots and posters.
To move on to the big leagues, the studio specialist needed to take a daring step. “I had to leave America to truly find my voice,” Turning explains from her Los Angeles studio, where she is enjoying a brief pause before jetting off on another assignment.
“It is very important to develop a personal style” in order to succeed in the hyper-competitive world of photography, she says, and young photographers must make it a priority to nurture and enhance their own true inner voice. “My style is very fantasy oriented, and so I was having trouble getting out of the music world, where a fantasy approach was accepted and admired.”
So as soon as school was done, the Art Center College of Design graduate packed her bags and moved — first to Milan, where she did editorial work, and then Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, where she began doing advertising work. (She continued to work in the States too, mainly in Los Angeles, but also in New York.) (more…)