Raymond Depardon: Passages
A new exhibition at Magnum Gallery in Paris celebrates the unwaning wanderings of Raymond Depardon, both in black and white and color.
“Depardon’s geography is unique, arbitrary, personal, deliberately born of ‘the pain of the frame’ and ‘the joy of light,’” writes Bruno Racine in the introduction to Raymond Depardon’s La France, a photobook and ode to his native country, published in 2010.
The brightly colored still landscapes of France, rural and metropolitan, are among the 40 rare prints currently on display at Magnum Gallery in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Titled Passages, the curation jumps from France to Italy, the USA to Argentina, and spans over six decades of the photographer’s career.
Depardon is a photographer who has spent the majority of his life on the road, far from the rural farm in the small commune of Le Garêt in southern France, where he grew up, and where he mysteriously cultivated his lifelong dedication to photography. Passages presents only a snapshot of his prolific career. Essential series such as Errance, La France and Communes are presented alongside lesser-known works, perhaps unfamiliar to the wider public.
Among the prints are a selection from his series La correspondence New-Yorkaise. When he first traveled to New York in the 1980s, Depardon’s images were sent back for a monthly publication in the French newspaper Libération. Speaking little English and self-proclaimed “terrified of Americans,” he would spend his time wandering the city streets, photographing to find meaning.
“I soon found a way of quelling my loneliness. I would carry a Leica around with me, with that wonderful German-made M21 lens which had served me so well in Beirut, Afghanistan and Chad. It became my companion, my alibi against that feeling of guilt born from having nothing else to do,” he wrote in the photobook Manhattan Out.
In contrast, we see a more personal series from Paris from the same decade. Depardon’s ease in Parisian apartments and streets seeps through in the sense of intimacy conveyed by these images, a shift away from the more distant, fly-on-the-wall compositions from New York. Marked only with a street name, arrondissement, and year, each image stands as a poetic vignette of day-to-day life in Paris during the 80s.
The Parisian images are drawn from Entre-temps, a photobook which celebrates the suspended moments in between his various trips, from 1979 and 2006
In other sections, we revisit his photo-reportage Manicomio from an Italian psychiatric hospital in Trieste, near Venice, in the late 70s, as well as his series on poverty-stricken Glasgow in 1980 — a body of work that would, 50 years later, come to inspire acclaimed author Douglas Stewart for his best-selling novel Shuggie Bain. And the exhibition also reveals, for the first time, photographs taken during Depardon’s most recent trip to the United States, just before the COVID-19 pandemic closed the borders. In the spirit of 1930s American photographers such as Walker Evans, Depardon traveled along small roads to capture and convey the essence of the American pastoral. These softly colored, deserted scenes evoke film sets, reflecting the cinematic eye that often defines his work. Together, the works of the exhibition reveal the sensitivity, commitment, and poetic vision with which Depardon observes the world. A member of Magnum since 1979, Depardon defines photography as “the elogy of each moment.” Whether capturing the hustle and bustle of a city like New York, the silence of a desert landscape, or the rural dwellings of his origins, his work transcends the constraints of reportage to attain a deeply introspective dimension.
About the Author
Raymond Depardon, born in France in 1942, discovered his passion for photography early, capturing images of rural life on his family’s farm in Le Garêt at age twelve. Following an apprenticeship with a local photographer in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Depardon moved to Paris in 1958 to pursue his ambitions.
In Paris, Depardon quickly established himself as a skilled photojournalist. In 1960, he joined the Dalmas agency, and six years later, he became a founding member of Gamma, through which he documented significant global events. Notably, from 1974 to 1977, Depardon extensively covered the dramatic kidnapping of ethnologist François Claustre in Chad, simultaneously honing his filmmaking skills with documentaries like Une Partie de Campagne and San Clemente.
Depardon joined Magnum Photos in 1978, becoming a full member shortly thereafter, and now contributes regularly to the renowned cooperative. His photographic works such as Notes (1979) and Correspondance New Yorkaise (1981) were accompanied by the critically acclaimed documentary Reporters (1981), which enjoyed an extended run in Paris’s Latin Quarter.
In 1984, Depardon contributed significantly to the DATAR project, capturing France’s rural landscapes through photography. His distinguished career earned him the prestigious Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1991. Parallel to photography, Depardon continued his filmmaking career, notably earning a César Award in 1995 for Délits Flagrants, a documentary exploring the intricacies of the French judicial system.
From 1998 onward, Depardon dedicated himself to an expansive film trilogy highlighting rural France. His work was prominently showcased in a major exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris in 2000. Additionally, the sequel to his justice-themed documentary received international attention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.
Between 2004 and 2007, Depardon expanded his artistic reach with an ambitious film installation exploring urban life in twelve major cities, commissioned by the Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art and displayed in Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin. In 2006, he served as the artistic director for the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival. Over his prolific career, Depardon has directed 18 feature-length films and authored 47 books, cementing his legacy as a pivotal figure in contemporary visual storytelling.
Raymond Depardon: Passages
until July 26, 2025
Magnum Gallery -Paris – France
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