After this, you will never look at the inside of your refrigerator the same way again. A potato, a lemon, camembert cheese, and fish: Beyond being mere food to fill your stomach, these ingredients also possess shape, surface, and substance. Such aesthetic qualities have caught the eye of photographers for a very long time. Probably created between 1822 and 1830, the second officially catalogued photograph by Nicéphore Niépce, the pioneer of photography, was titled "La Table servie" ("The set table") and depicts preparations for a meal atop a white tablecloth.

At Les Douches gallery in Paris, an exhibition brimming with treasures presents a selection of photographic forays into the modest, intimate setting of the kitchen, from the avant-garde of the 1930s to contemporary photographers. The 20^th century, in particular, saw tableware objects spark new interest.

"In the interwar period, photographers left behind pictorial subjects to focus on the banal and everyday," explained Eric Rémy, curator of the exhibition "Dans ma cuisine" ("In my kitchen"). "Kitchen objects, made of glass or metal, offered them shine, texture, new framing possibilities. There was also a taste for industrial, mass-produced objects."

Contrast between the unexpected and the familiar

It was at a dinner hosted by painter Fernand Léger in 1928 that André Kertész produced what would become his iconic image: a simple fork placed on a saucer, cast into a sophisticated play of shadows – a 1960s print is on display at the gallery. Kertész made this work the same year August Sander, who aimed to create a comprehensive sociological portrait of German society in images, composed another famous photo: the portrait of a chubby confectioner ("Konditor," 1928), as round as his cooking pot.

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