Stéphane
Duroy

Stéphane Duroy

biography

French photographer, member of the VU’ agency since its beginnings, lives in Paris

First a press photographer, Stéphane Duroy gradually moves away from reportage to question the relationship between the 20th century Europe and its own history – scarred by two atrocious wars. His approach is both documentary and conceptual, with a sobriety of means that prohibits the spectacular as much as the anecdotal.

“From 1977 to 2002, I undertook a vast photographic survey of British society, whose marked social divisions illustrate the complexity of a human community.
From 1979 West Berlin emerged as the link between cause and effect, the place where were decided the major orientations which generated the European tragedy and called our dear values into question.
Finally, from 1984, the United States – as a magnificent symbol of hope, a great ready-made dream in which no one believes anymore – closed the circle.
Today, this obsessive journey forms a closed theatre prefiguring the chain of our behaviors : group survival, power and its struggles, failure, bitterness, rejection, flight, finally, a mixture of sincere hope and duplicity.”

This profound and disillusioned reflection on a deaf and desolate Europe gives rise to an important corpus of monographs. In 2017, ten years after the publication of his book “Unknow“, Filigranes éditions publishes “Unknown #2 – The endless Reworking of a book“, marking a formal evolution initiated in 2009: “Collages, press clippings, anonymous photographs, paintings, erasures and tears, come to feed and abuse dozens of copies of his book Unknown. By this daily gesture of destruction and reconstruction, by adding layers of successive materials, (…) this attempt to exhaust the book and his own images allows Stéphane Duroy to go beyond his photography, to break its codes and explore new territories of expression”. (Fannie Escoulen)

Stéphane Duroy’s work is part of prestigious private and public collections (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Maison Européenne de la Photographie) and is regularly exhibited, such as in “Collapse“, a major retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris) in 2002, or “Again and Again” at the Bal (Paris) in 2017.

Series

Unknown: The Endless Reworking of a book, 2017

Serie | Published in 2007, Unknow by Stéphane Duroy is comprised of photographs taken during years of travel to the United States, between New York and Montana.

Geisterbild, 2012

Série | Stéphane Duroy pursues his artistic approach by this constancy on the human condition, its endless frustrations, between boredom and resignation, reactualizes the deep injustices that, throughout the twentieth century, have plunged the European peoples in an endless tragedy.

Distress, 2011

Serie | This depiction of the human condition and its interminable frustrations, from boredom to despair to resignation, is a contemporary reflection on the profound injustices that left Europe mired in tragedy for much of the 20th century.

Berlin, 2009

Serie | Unfortunately for the West, because their fates are crossed, Stalin, Rosa Luxemburg and Adolf Hitler have made Berlin the capital of the pain.

1297, 2009

Serie | Once again, Stéphane Duroy went on the trail of tragedies that marked the twentieth century Europe. Here he traces to the surface the memory of the forced exile of many Portuguese.

UNKNOWN, 2007

Serie | The aim of this work, after the tragedies of Europe in the twentieth century, to consider America as a welcoming place, a receptacle of dramas of old Europe, optimistic transposition of misery, the brutality of war and revolutions.

Silent Europe, 2000

Serie | When I set out to photograph West Berlin in 1979, I wanted to understand how such a highly civilized people as the Germans could have created the horrors of Nazism, a phenomenon unique in history.

Harlem sur Seine, 1988

Serie | Stéphane Duroy worked for a year on the African community in Paris, its customs and way of life.

Unknown: The Endless Reworking of a book, 2017

Serie | Published in 2007, Unknow by Stéphane Duroy is comprised of photographs taken during years of travel to the United States, between New York and Montana.

Geisterbild, 2012

Série | Stéphane Duroy pursues his artistic approach by this constancy on the human condition, its endless frustrations, between boredom and resignation, reactualizes the deep injustices that, throughout the twentieth century, have plunged the European peoples in an endless tragedy.

Distress, 2011

Serie | This depiction of the human condition and its interminable frustrations, from boredom to despair to resignation, is a contemporary reflection on the profound injustices that left Europe mired in tragedy for much of the 20th century.

Berlin, 2009

Serie | Unfortunately for the West, because their fates are crossed, Stalin, Rosa Luxemburg and Adolf Hitler have made Berlin the capital of the pain.

1297, 2009

Serie | Once again, Stéphane Duroy went on the trail of tragedies that marked the twentieth century Europe. Here he traces to the surface the memory of the forced exile of many Portuguese.

UNKNOWN, 2007

Serie | The aim of this work, after the tragedies of Europe in the twentieth century, to consider America as a welcoming place, a receptacle of dramas of old Europe, optimistic transposition of misery, the brutality of war and revolutions.

Silent Europe, 2000

Serie | When I set out to photograph West Berlin in 1979, I wanted to understand how such a highly civilized people as the Germans could have created the horrors of Nazism, a phenomenon unique in history.

Harlem sur Seine, 1988

Serie | Stéphane Duroy worked for a year on the African community in Paris, its customs and way of life.

Unknown: The Endless Reworking of a book, 2017

Serie | Published in 2007, Unknow by Stéphane Duroy is comprised of photographs taken during years of travel to the United States, between New York and Montana.

Geisterbild, 2012

Série | Stéphane Duroy pursues his artistic approach by this constancy on the human condition, its endless frustrations, between boredom and resignation, reactualizes the deep injustices that, throughout the twentieth century, have plunged the European peoples in an endless tragedy.

Distress, 2011

Serie | This depiction of the human condition and its interminable frustrations, from boredom to despair to resignation, is a contemporary reflection on the profound injustices that left Europe mired in tragedy for much of the 20th century.

Berlin, 2009

Serie | Unfortunately for the West, because their fates are crossed, Stalin, Rosa Luxemburg and Adolf Hitler have made Berlin the capital of the pain.

1297, 2009

Serie | Once again, Stéphane Duroy went on the trail of tragedies that marked the twentieth century Europe. Here he traces to the surface the memory of the forced exile of many Portuguese.

UNKNOWN, 2007

Serie | The aim of this work, after the tragedies of Europe in the twentieth century, to consider America as a welcoming place, a receptacle of dramas of old Europe, optimistic transposition of misery, the brutality of war and revolutions.

Silent Europe, 2000

Serie | When I set out to photograph West Berlin in 1979, I wanted to understand how such a highly civilized people as the Germans could have created the horrors of Nazism, a phenomenon unique in history.

Harlem sur Seine, 1988

Serie | Stéphane Duroy worked for a year on the African community in Paris, its customs and way of life.

Interviews

Par les temps qui courent
France Culture
—
Interview by Marie Richeux, 2019

For the publication of the book “Rencontres avec Stéphane Duroy“ by Sophie Bernard (Filigranes), and his exhibition at the Galerie VU’ in Paris, the photographer talks to us about destroying to rebuild better, about his work directed by the 20th century history and about his attraction to places of terror.

Listen

Regardez voir
France Inter
—
Interview by Brigitte Patient, 2017

Stephane Duroy explores and questions the memory of a Europe marked by two wars, as well as the crumbling of the American dream. He exhibits “Again and Again” at the BAL in Paris.

Listen

Ping Pong
France Culture
—
Interview by Mathilde Serrell and Martin Quenehen, 2017

Stephane Duroy exhibits “Again and Again” at the BAL in Paris.

Listen

Exhibitions

Stéphane Duroy
—
Galerie VU’, Paris (FRANCE)
—
From March 3 to May 31, 2019

More informations

Distress
—
Festival L’Oeil Urbain, Corbeil-Essonnes (FRANCE)
—
From April 5 to May 19, 2019

More informations

Again and Again
—
Le Bal, Paris (FRANCE)
—
From January 6 to April 9, 2017

More informations

books

Rencontres avec Stéphane Duroy

Filigranes Éditions - 2019

Unknown #2

Filigranes Éditions - 2017

Stéphane Duroy, Guardian of Time

Only Photography - 2012

Geisterbild

Filigranes Éditions - 2012

Distress

Filigranes Éditions - 2011

Berlin

Filigranes Éditions - 2009

1297

Filigranes Éditions, Hors Collection - 2009

Unknown

Filigranes Éditions - 2007

Cercle de Famille

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

L’Europe du silence

Filigranes Éditions - 2001

Une saison en Lorraine

Filigranes Éditions - 1999

Berlin, ville ouverte

Nathan - 1990

Grande Bretagne

Editions Temps de Pose - 1987

Berlin

Editions Temps de Pose - 1986

Rencontres avec Stéphane Duroy

Filigranes Éditions - 2019

Unknown #2

Filigranes Éditions - 2017

Stéphane Duroy, Guardian of Time

Only Photography - 2012

Geisterbild

Filigranes Éditions - 2012

Distress

Filigranes Éditions - 2011

Berlin

Filigranes Éditions - 2009

1297

Filigranes Éditions, Hors Collection - 2009

Unknown

Filigranes Éditions - 2007

Cercle de Famille

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

L’Europe du silence

Filigranes Éditions - 2001

Une saison en Lorraine

Filigranes Éditions - 1999

Berlin, ville ouverte

Nathan - 1990

Grande Bretagne

Editions Temps de Pose - 1987

Berlin

Editions Temps de Pose - 1986

Rencontres avec Stéphane Duroy

Filigranes Éditions - 2019

Unknown #2

Filigranes Éditions - 2017

Stéphane Duroy, Guardian of Time

Only Photography - 2012

Geisterbild

Filigranes Éditions - 2012

Distress

Filigranes Éditions - 2011

Berlin

Filigranes Éditions - 2009

1297

Filigranes Éditions, Hors Collection - 2009

Unknown

Filigranes Éditions - 2007

Cercle de Famille

Filigranes Éditions - 2004

L’Europe du silence

Filigranes Éditions - 2001

Une saison en Lorraine

Filigranes Éditions - 1999

Berlin, ville ouverte

Nathan - 1990

Grande Bretagne

Editions Temps de Pose - 1987

Berlin

Editions Temps de Pose - 1986

Awards

Laureate of the Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation grant.

2004

Laureate of the World Press Photo, First Prize in the category Nature and Environment.

For his project about pollution in Eastern Germany.

1991

Laureate of the Leonard de Vinci grant.

To pursue his project about Europe.

1990

Laureate of the World Press Photo in the category Daily Life

For his documentary about African community in Paris.

1989