In the late 1970s Turyn founded and edited a series of publications collectively entitled Top Stories, in which each issue was devoted to the work of a single author or artist such as Kathy Acker, Laurie Anderson, Constance DeJong, and Richard Prince. Turyn was herself a writer at the time, and her photographs are among the most assured combinations of text and image in art of the 1980s. For her series entitled "Flashbulb Memories," she explored the phenomenon (dubbed a "flashbulb memory" by psychologists) whereby the details of where one was or what one was doing upon learning significant or fateful news become attached to the memory.Like literature, photography is a ventriloquist's medium, allowing the artist to throw his or her voice into a seemingly infinite number of period styles. Turyn displays pinpoint accuracy (or what feels accurate) in lighting, props, and surfaces that conjure up a time as it is imprinted in memory - the "where were you when you learned about . . . ?" feeling that bridges public event and private, subjective response.
