Photographer and multi-media artist Deborah Anderson has lived and worked in Paris, and been exhibited in Paris, Los Angeles and New York. She has a client list that includes Sir Elton John, George Clooney and Cindy Crawford.
Her work has been featured in prestigious publications, including Architectural Digest, GQ Magazine, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and the Sunday Times, United Kingdom.
She is the art director for the Gansevoort Hotel Group and its flagship Manhattan hotel. While living in Paris, Anderson had her own boutique vintage fashion line with major retail clients in New York including Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan. She is a published author and documentary filmmaker.
Formerly based in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles, she, like many, sought to escape the LA hubbub. Topanga had gentrified, changed and priced out many of the artists who had long given Topanga its distinctive character. She was looking for a place that had the “old Topanga” vibe, with an existing resident artist base, complemented by a beautiful natural setting.
A friend recommended Idyllwild. “I came here in July [2017] to decompress,” Anderson recalled. “This is what Topanga used to be like. I felt that Idyllwild was this hidden secret. I moved here in August and was very humbled by the energy here. ‘What am I doing here,’? I asked myself.” But a chance encounter answered that question.
Even having exhibited internationally, Anderson said she had never had the desire to open a gallery. “But I saw this space in The Fort,” she said. “I looked through the window and felt I had the boat floating in the right direction. I opened with a show of my photographs from my book ‘Paperthin’ (Verlhac Editions 2009) on Dec. 9.
“With my Idyllwild gallery, I hope to be able to help bring people here and provide affordable art. I’ll continue to work with my other [off-Hill] concerns, including a documentary feature film about Native American women being raped, abused and trafficked for sex.” Anderson said she’d exhibit stills taken during filming at her Idyllwild gallery once the film is finished. Prior to the exhibit in her own gallery, stills will be exhibited at the Leica Photographic Gallery in Beverly Hills in May of this year.
Anderson is the daughter of Jon Anderson, British/American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known as the former lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes. Anderson had her own singing career, with a 1995 release of “Feel the Sunshine” by Alex Reece on which she was featured. The drum and bass single made number 2 in the European charts and was in the top 20 in U.K. charts. Anderson released her debut solo single “Lonely Without You” in 1997. Her debut solo album “Silence” was released in 2009 as an accompaniment to her book “Paperthin.”
Anderson’s first feature documentary film project, “Aroused,” also was a fine-art book. The film featured 16 world-renowned female adult film stars, was released in theaters and is currently featured on Showtime in the U.S.
With everything she’s done and everywhere she’s lived, Anderson is very happy to be in Idyllwild. “I’m very much aware of the magic that is here,” she said.
Welcome to the Hill! Enjoy!