Raymond Depardon

Born July 6, 1942 in Villefranche-sur-Saône, in the Beaujolais region of France, Depardon began making photographs with a camera given to him as a gift from his older brother, while growing up on his family’s working farm in Garet. He apprenticed to a local photographer-optician, but moved at age 16 to Paris in 1958 to work with an independent reporter and photojournalist. By 1959, Depardon was working as a freelance reporter for the Dalmas news agency, and his images were published in such newspapers as Paris-Match. His first major assignment sent him to Africa with a scientific expedition to the Sahara desert, which proved disastrous for several members of the team, who disappeared in the desert. Depardon photographed the rescue effort, and his images were published to wide acclaim in Paris Match. Depardon would travel on assignment many times over the course of his career to cover political conflicts and humanitarian stories in Chad, Egypt, Mali, Nigeria, Eritrea, Algeria, Ethiopia and Niger. He developed a great love for these North and East African countries, making many personal documentary photographs over the years in these regions as well. Depardon has worked internationally as a reporter and photographer, covering stories in Africa as well as South America, the Middle East, and throughout Europe. He has also photographed extensively throughout France. His four year journey in a caravan around France resulted in the publication La France de Raymond Depardon (2010). Recent film projects, Profils paysans trilogy (L’Approche, 2001), Le Quotidien (2005), and La Vie moderne (2008)

as well as Journal de France (2012), also explore this subject.