Stephanie de Rouge: In Your Fridge

Stephanie de Rouge: In Your Fridge by Aline SmithsonJuly 25, 2012

Some photographers are natural observers, and some take that curiosity to another level and want to open a few drawers and dig a little deeper. French photographer, Stephanie de Rouge, is one of those visual investigators, probing into the pysche of how we humans function, especially in big city life. Stephanie has traversed a number of approaches to looking at our lives–shooting New Yorkers in their bedrooms or on their rooftops, and with the work featured below, In Your Fridge, shooting what her subjects eat, or at least have in their refrigerators.

After 30 years in Paris, Stephanie now makes her home in New York, teaching at the International Center for Photography, works as a contributor for Le Journal de La Photographie and the New York Times, and is a freelance portrait photographer. Her work has been featured in many publications and she has exhibited widely, with two recent exhibitions in Paris.

Through my travels, I have developed a fascination for big cities and their devastating energy. Since I live and work in New York, I am more than ever wondering how humans survive those tentacular – always exciting – and often hostile urban spaces. How they preserve their singularity and intimacy, where they find the soft, he poetic, the soothing, where they hide their secrets.

Brookkyn, NY, Famille Englund

I started the project by shooting portraits of New Yorkers in their bedrooms (In Your Room) thinking it could be a good place for intimacy. I was wrong. Or not exactly right. The building walls don’t talk. New Yorkers move all the time, share/sublet bedrooms…Not a good setting for a long term relationship with one self.

Brooklyn, NY, Andrew et Framton

Quickly, my subjects whispered a few words about a place dear to their hearts: rooftops. An outdoor space for intimacy? Why not…Let’s see…I discovered more than 40 of these urban shelters between earth and sky (On Your Roof), and as fascinated not by the amazing light, not by the phenomenal views, but by the real people I met up there and the very touching stories they shared with me.

Brooklyn, NY, Fred

Then I got thirsty…Can I grab a juice in the fridge?

New York, NY, John

Hmmm….what’s with the Barbie doll behind the salad? From Paris to New York, I opened more than 45 fridges and discovered quite amazing worlds. Much more elaborate and revealing than I had expected in the first place. But I knew I was at a milestone in my quest of intimacy on big cities when people actually started refusing to show their fridges. As if something too personal was stacked between the cheddar cheese and the mayonnaise. So…show me (what you eat) your refrigerator, I’ll tell you who you are? Maybe. Maybe no.