Deborah Luster

Deborah Luster is a photographer who works on long-term documentary and archival projects, often associated with death and memory. Through her research in American prisons, she started addressing her mother’s murder, explaining that she needed “an aesthetic equivalent to the endless and indirect formality of loss.” Her images are direct, honest, and compassionate towards both subject and viewer. The triptych depicts a fragmented view of the body of Pearlee Toliver lying in state. The so-called “Jewel of the Dial” is one of the most memorable personalities of northeastern Louisiana for the radio gospel show she hosted for nearly 30 years.

Deborah Luster (1951, USA) lives and works in New Orleans. Her work has been exhibited at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2013, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, while in 2014 she was a resident artist at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.