Raymond DepardonRaymond Depardon (b. 6 July 1942, Villefranche-sur-Saône

Villefranche-sur-Saône

Villefranche-sur-Saône is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It lies 1 mile west of the Saône River, and is around north of Lyon...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) is a French photographer, photojournalist and documentary filmmaker

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

.

Photographer

Depardon is for the most part a self-taught photographer, as he began taking pictures on his family's farm when he was 12. He apprenticed with a photographer-optician in Villefranche-sur-Saône

Villefranche-sur-Saône

Villefranche-sur-Saône is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It lies 1 mile west of the Saône River, and is around north of Lyon...

 before he moved to Paris in 1958. He began his career as a photojournalist in the early 1960s. He travelled to conflict zones including Algeria, Vietnam

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, Biafra

Biafra

Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...

 and Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

. In 1966, Depardon co-founded the photojournalism agency Gamma

Gamma (agency)

Gamma is a French photo agency, founded in 1966 by Raymond Depardon, Hubert Henrotte, Hugues Vassal and Léonard de Raemy. Gilles Caron joined the agency shortly after its foundation...

, and he became its director in 1974. In 1973 he became Gamma’s director. From 1975 to 1977 Depardon traveled in Chad and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1977. The next year he left Gamma to become a Magnum associate, then a full member in 1979. In the 1990s, Depardon went back to his parents’ farm to photograph rural landscapes in color, and then in 1996 published a black-and-white road journal, In Africa.

Director

Depardon is also the author of several documentary shorts and feature films. His approach as a director is influenced by cinéma vérité

Cinéma vérité

Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...

 and direct cinema

Direct Cinema

Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...

. In 1969 he made his first film (about Jan Pallach) and he has directed 16 films since then. In 1979 he received a George Sadoul Prize for his film Numéro Zéro. In 1984 Depardon made his first fiction film, Empty Quarters. Other notable examples include 1974, une partie de campagne, on the 1974 presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...

, Reporters (1981) and New York, N.Y. (1986), both winners of the César Award

César Award

The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

 for best short documentary, La captive du désert (1990), nominated for the Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival

1990 Cannes Film Festival

- Jury :*Bernardo Bertolucci *Alexei Guerman *Anjelica Huston *Bertrand Blier *Christopher Hampton*Fanny Ardant *Françoise Giroud *Hayao Shibata *Mira Nair *Sven Nykvist...

 and Délits flagrants (1994) which won awards for best feature documentary at the César Awards, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Joris Ivens award) and the Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...

.

At the 2000 Kraków Film Festival

Kraków Film Festival

The Kraków Film Festival is one of Europe's oldest events dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. It has been organised year after year since 1961....

, Depardon received the Dragon of Dragons, a lifetime achievement award.

Filmography

• Donner la parole (2008)
• Le tour du monde en 14 jours (2008)
• Profils paysans: La vie moderne (2008)
• Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007) (segment "Cinéma d'Eté")
• Profils paysans: le quotidien (2005)
• 10e chambre - Instants d'audience (2004)
• Quoi de neuf au Garet? (2004)
• Un homme sans l'Occident (2002)
• Profils paysans: l'approche (2001)
• Muriel Leferle (1999)
• Paris (1998)
• Afriques: Comment ça va avec la douleur? (1996)
• Malraux (1996)
• Lumière et compagnie (1995)
• À propos de Nice, la suite (1995) (segment "Prom, La'")
• Délits flagrants (1994)
• Montage (1994)
• Contre l'oubli (1991) (segment "Pour Alirio de Jesus Pedraza Becerra, Colombie")
• La captive du désert (1990)
• Contacts (1990)
• Une histoire très simple (1989)
• Urgences (1988)
• New York, N.Y. (1986)
• Une femme en Afrique (1985)
• Les années déclic (1984)
• Faits divers (1983)
• San Clemente (1982)
• Piparsod (1982/I)
• Reporters (1981)
• Numéros zéro (1980)
• Dix minutes de silence pour John Lennon (1980)
• Tchad 3 (1976)
• Tibesti Too (1976)
• Tchad 2 (1975)
• 1974, une partie de campagne (1974)
• Yemen: Arabie heureuse (1973)
• Tchad 1: L'embuscade (1970)
• Jan Palach (1969/I)
• Biafra (1968)
• Israel (1967)
• Venezuela (1963)

External links