Ethridge works interchangeably between commercial and art spheres, nonchalantly flitting from the branded to the anonymous: shooting for Calvin Klein and exhibiting at Gagosian (where he currently has a show<\/a> on view at its Athens space until 7 March). A curator once called Ethridge\u2019s images \u201claconic drop-kicks to the eye\u201d, while a critic said that he \u201cpushes glossy lifestyle imagery into awkwardness\u201d. Below, we spoke to the photographer about embracing visual tangents, photographing nudity, and latent sociopolitical anxiety.<\/p>\n The title of the book is very evocative, and I was wondering how it sets the tone for your work.<\/p>\n Roe Ethridge: Well, sometimes you get lucky, and a phrase just comes into your head. It came in a flash and stuck. It did feel like putting my money where my mouth is. A lot of people are asking, \u2018What is rude, what is polite?\u2019 It\u2019s sort of that dialectical idea of the good way and the rude way, morphing into this other thing. It\u2019s philosophy 101 stuff, but it makes sense to me as a way to think about the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n When photographing someone like Lindsay Lohan, viewers come with pre-existing perceptions. Can you talk about depicting celebrities in general \u2013 how that preconception element can complicate what you want to transmit?<\/p>\n Roe Ethridge: With Lindsay, it\u2019s not that it could be anybody, right? [With celebrity], it\u2019s different every time. That said, there are some generalities around it. Celebrity brings with it almost a dark intensity. She is a ubiquitous thing, but it’s not a ubiquitous thing like UPS or a checkered tablecloth. It’s a person who is continuing to re-contextualise themselves in public all the time, and we are all experiencing it. Unless you decide not to participate in culture, which is fine too.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this case, I photographed her in the studio in front of a green screen. I used my cousin who lives in Miami to take background pictures. I also used pictures from my book Sacrifice Your Body\u00a0and pictures from my parents\u2019 hometown in Belle Glade, Florida. When I was taking pictures of the sugar cane, I accidentally put my car in the canal. And then I put the car that Lindsey was using in the story, in place of mine, in Photoshop.<\/p>\n That\u2019s interesting, this revisiting your own work. One image in Spare Bedroom has the same wallpaper as in Rude in a Good Way. Even the act of republishing works from earlier in your career is a kind of revisiting. Why does relying again on things that you\u2019ve already used feel important to you?<\/p>\n Roe Ethridge: I was fascinated and repulsed by my generic middle-class suburban lot in life, and hated it in many ways. Later on, I came to appreciate it and realised, \u2018Oh man, I had a pretty good life\u2019 \u2013 in terms of privilege, but also there was something in this generic identity, or non-identity, of middle-class, American Southern, suburban blah blah blah that I could use as subject matter. My dad was interested in photography, but in a sort of \u2018southern suburban man\u2019 way, of just being interested in \u2018what\u2019s a good photograph\u2019: that\u2019s a good photograph of a flower, that\u2019s a good photograph of a bumblebee, that\u2019s a good photograph of a car. It sort of predetermined, in some ways, that I would be interested in these generic typologies, these stock photography things.<\/p>\n I assisted catalogue photographers in Atlanta after I graduated from high school, and I was rolling film and lighting JC Penney\u2019s catalogues. Instead of being an appropriator of culture, like Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman or Lichtenstein \u2013 who I love \u2013 I love making pictures, so I wanted to make the pictures: I wanted to author something, without it being like, \u2018I\u2019m the genius behind this picture.\u2019 I liked the idea of mediating that notion of genius through stock photography and the diminished forms of the image\u2026 It was a way to self-appropriate. The idea of repurposing from my inventory is as if I have a stock library that I can pull from.<\/p>\n You just mentioned this exasperation with your background. I read an interview where you said, \u2018I\u2019m interested in weird America\u2019, and talked about David Lynch as a reference. I could see that in Rude in a Good Way: there was something recognisable, but very uneasy at the same time. Even with typologies, you\u2019re altering them in a way that creates something askew. How do you cultivate that?<\/p>\n Roe Ethridge: I used to say, \u2018If I don\u2019t have a feeling of nausea, maybe it\u2019s not a good photo.\u2019 I don\u2019t think I feel that way so much anymore, but there\u2019s still something to that. There is a sweet spot where \u2013 and I\u2019m not always trying to get the same thing \u2013 I want to stay open-ended and accommodating to discovery, as the priority: the things that I didn\u2019t know I could do with a camera. Or I come in with an idea, but the tangent is so much better; my brain cannot think as well as the things that are on the periphery. So I\u2019m always looking for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is something especially right now \u2013 I mean, Jesus Christ, I think I haven\u2019t slept well in months, you know? This fucking time that we’re living through is\u2026 awful. In some ways, I want to reserve the right to make beautiful things, despite it being a horrible time, and to not have to be a political commentator or purveyor of an ideology or stuck in a theoretical loop where I\u2019m just navel-gazing. I want richness in my life, a wealth of experiences and ideas, so that\u2019s the priority. But I\u2019m certain that something\u2019s happening here that\u2019s reflecting a kind of mistrust or discomfort or unease\u2026 You don\u2019t have to try. It\u2019s just in there, you know?<\/p>\n Yes, I get that \u2013 a baseline malaise. Are the images from Rude in a Good Way all from a recent timeline?<\/p>\n Roe Ethridge:\u00a0This is a great example of that \u2018inventory\u2019 notion. There are different time periods. The newest pictures are of [my girlfriend] Lulu. We have hundreds of pictures that we made over the last year. I just put a couple in to introduce this stuff. But that keyed the pictures I took at John Currin\u2019s studio, which I had been like, \u2018When am I ever gonna get to use this?\u2019 Somehow, it felt like the pictures with Lulu and the pictures of John Currin\u2019s studio connected. It\u2019s almost like that serendipity or discovery that what I\u2019m looking for when I\u2019m making pictures happened in the edit.<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Roe_Ethridge_Rude_In_the_Good_Way_20\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1437920.jpg\")
Lulu with Pink Bow Panties, 2025\u00a9 Roe Ethridge 2026 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Roe_Ethridge_Rude_In_the_Good_Way_21\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1437921.jpg\")
From John Currin Studio, 2008\u00a9 Roe Ethridge 2026 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n
![\"Roe_Ethridge_Rude_In_the_Good_Way_08\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1437914.jpg\")
Lulu in Green Lace and Fishnets, 2025\u00a9 Roe Ethridge 2026 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n