Luster jointly won a
Lange-Taylor Prize in 2000 with
C.D. Wright with whom she has worked as a duo for
One Big Self. Permanently featured in
Whitney Museum of American Art, the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
New Orleans Museum of Art, and the
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Deborah Luster "creates a complex and vivid portrait". on
One Big Self making portraits of prisoners in silver-gelatin emulsion on metal boards. Vince Aletti of
The New Yorker said of her work "Suddenly, we are there, and desolation, desperation and death are very real." She gave visiting presentations at
Pratt Institute,
Hendrix College and
Watkins College of Art and Design in 2013, while in 2014 she was awarded residency at the
Irish Museum of Modern Art. She has been awarded the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, and the Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers. Her work is also featured in dozens of public collections. Luster's work on
One Big Self extended to two other prisons including
Angola Penitentiary and her work is permanently displayed in still more notable galleries including the
Smithsonian American Art Museum. ==References==