Stephanie Duprie Routh
photographer
DAYDREAM IN MEMORIES OF YOUTH
This is a visual diary, using myself and others to represent the sensuality I remember and still feel. Longing and wanting are companions that do not diminish with age. My exterior may not represent my inner beauty or the evocative experiences I carry forward. My past and present co-exist simultaneously: the layered images bridge the duality. Shooting through a veil, I question which side is the physical being and which is the mirrored core. My seductive memories are moved into the present moment, wanting to be seen as the person I perceive myself to be. My heart reminisces while my mind strives to carry past allure into the here and now, offering the world a glimpse of the duplicity of age and beauty.
MONOGRAPH
Awards: Px3 Honorable Mention, IPA 2024 Short List, IPA 2024 Honorable Mention and Juror Top 5
Daydream in Memories of Youth is a visual diary, using myself and others to represent the sensuality I remember and still feel. Longing and wanting are companions that do not diminish with age. The layered images bridge the duality of past and present for a psychological view of beauty, evoking nostalgia and desire.
Sensuality and women are multi-faceted. This book contains collaborated work by two other women to illustrate sensuality from different perspectives. A writer, Dalya Sachs, adds flash poetry in response to the images. The poems are based on the construct of grammar. An olfactory artist, Lula Curioca, adds a signature scent to represent the overall body of work, taking imagery and words both into account.
Beauty and sensuality transcend age and are not fleeting attributes. Exploring the intersection of beauty, youth, social constructs, and cultural norms involves reconciling the past with the present. The book gives everyone permission to be vulnerable in remembering the past while talking about sensuality and aging in the present.
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There are four distinct books with distinct cover colors. Each book represents an exhibit location: ATX, CA, CDMX, and NYC. Books ATX and CA have a green Pantone wash in the interior whereas CDMX and NYC have a maroon Pantone wash. Each book contains the exact same imagery, writings, and statements. Each book contains a scented insert for the viewer to open (or not).
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Exclusive Bundle: Includes one (1) copy of each cover (4 books total) + 1 Limited Edition, Archival 8 x 12 print
Text by Dalya Sachs
Scent by Lula Curioca
Published by Generation Press
Designed by Jesse Holborn (Design Holborn)
Hardcover
152 x 230mm vertical; 6" x 9" vertical
94 pages
PRESS
“Daydream in Memories of Youth is a remarkable, creative, and emotionally touching book. The photographs are extraordinary, each one capturing an emotional narrative of aging and sensuality and beauty. The poems are first-rate evocations of emotional states of wonder, question and confidence. Finally, the scent is a fine evocation of that sense of aging with beauty. This is a book that needs to be held and experienced.” - W. Scott Olsen, FRAMES Magazine
“Each image features the youthful female form in conversation with the artist’s own. Many of the subjects are women whom Routh met during her global travels. A shared moment with what had previously been strangers that we are now invited to share. They are sensual and provoke a dialogue between the figure, light, and surrounding elements.” - SALT Art & Culture
“Through Daydream in Memories of Youth, Stephanie Duprie Routh invites viewers to contemplate beauty, resilience, and nostalgia, offering a nuanced portrait of the self that bridges youthful allure with the wisdom of age. Her artistry continues to earn her accolades and inspire audiences, positioning her as a compelling voice in contemporary conceptual photography.” - Karen Ghostlaw, Pictorial List
“Routh’s approach to her subjects shows them as human beings with complex embodied feelings, including private feelings that may include, among many other things, vulnerability, sensuality, desire, a desire to be desired, a need for intimacy and belonging, and for being seen. Their role as the protagonists of their own stories defies simple objectification, and the layered and sometimes puzzling complexity of the photos draws viewers in to witness and even participate in a multitude of unfolding dramas.
The people in these pictures are not presented as passive bodies on display for a distinctly male audience. These are images of embodied women. These women are alive in and through their bodies. They hold their bodies, and they control them, sometimes even throwing them at us in such an active manner that we feel taken aback, unsure how to respond. Sometimes, they catch us in the act of looking. They invite us to imagine how it feels to be them, and to be looked at and maybe even seen, by us and by others. You might find yourself taking a little personal pleasure at their expense, but in so doing, you may also find yourself confronted, because ultimately these are the protagonists of their own stories, and they demand that we as viewers do more than simply take pleasure in how they look. These images require more of us. They ask viewers to play a role in their stories, and in so doing, to stand witness to their pain, pleasure, longing, and resilience–in short, to their humanity.” - Danielle Fox, SLATE Contemporary, Curator
”I found myself in a room of mirrors—conceptual ones—made of paint, poetry, and scent. It reminded me to stand inside my own nostalgia, and to let it unfold. Not regressively, but reflectively. As if what I’ve left behind might still be shaping what I’m becoming. As part of the Daydream in Memories of Youth/Grammar of Possibility show at Fox Projects in San Francisco, I moderated a conversation with artists Stephanie Duprie Roth and Dalya Sachs. What stayed with me was not a single phrase or moment, but a feeling of threshold—the threshold of time and memory. Of nostalgia, of the feminine. That liminal space between then and now, self and other, loss and finding. We entered into a shared grammar of longing—not to analyze or fix, but to feel. To let it mirror something unspoken within us.” - Rimma Boshernitsan, DIALOGUE
EXHIBITIONS
Raw Photo Fest, Minorca, Spain
SLATE Contemporary, Oakland CA
Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
Salmagundi, New York, NY
Paggi House, Austin, TX
Installation images from Minnesota Street Projects, 2025
