Rural

Depardon, Raymond

Raymond Depardon is a French photographer and film director. He founded the Gamma press agency in 1966 with fellow French photographer Gilles Caron, and later joined Magnum Photos in 1978. He was a photojournalist covering war zones in the 60's, 70's and 80's (Algeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Chad, Lebanon, etc.) He directed many documentary films, in the political world ("1974, une partie de campagne" about the presidential election of Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing), the industrial world ("Numéros Zéros", about the creation of the newspaper "Matin de Paris") and the judicial and carceral system ("Faits Divers", "Délits Flagrants", "10ème chambre, instants d'audience") before turning his camera to rural France and the disappearing world of very small farmers with his triptych "L'Approche", "Profils Paysans" and "La Vie Moderne". The list of his publications is very long, Raymond Depardon being one of the French photographers to have published the most photobooks (on a side note, he is still far from Bernard Plossu's count...) A short version could include: "Notes" (Arfuyen, 1979), "Correspondance New-Yorkaise" (Libération / L'Etoile, 1981), "San Clemente" (CNP, 1984), "La Ferme du Garet" (Editions Carré, 1995), "Désert, un homme sans occident" (Le Seuil, 2003), "La Terre des Paysans" (Le Seuil, 2008), "Méditerranée" (Editions Xavier Barral, 2014), "Glasgow" (Le Seuil, 2016), "Depardon USA" (Editions Xavier Barral, 2018), "Rural" (Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, 2020), "La Chambre" (Atelier EXB, 2020). © Self-portrait, 1992.