Raymond Depardon, one of France's most well-known photographers and filmmakers, is being celebrated with a book and a special exhibition in Paris. His latest film Les Années Déclic – about the earliest days of his career – was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The French photographer was just 18 years old in 1960 when he decided to buy an Italian Rumi scooter to cross Paris, never without his Rolleiflex camera around his neck.
He witnessed the boom years of French cinema and captured shots of Brigitte Bardot on the set of Vie Privée (A Very Private Affair), to Jean-Luc Godard and Jean Seberg at the premiere of the 1960 film À Bout de Souffle (Breathless).
Depardon also covered news events in France, such as a conference given by Martin Luther King when he was in Paris in 1966.
He founded the Gamma agency in 1966, before joining Magnum Photos.
Since becoming a film director in 1974, he has since enjoyed an international career alternating between photography and cinema, both documentary and fiction.
Exhibition at Galerie Cinéma
Les Années Déclic (The Declic Years) is a book of around one hundred photographs spanning Depardon's iconic work throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s in France, which has just been published.
The name also lends itself to his latest film which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May, as well as an exhibition of 30 prints at the Galerie Cinéma in the Marais district in Paris.
"When Depardon came up with the idea of a book called Les Années Déclic with Gérard Lefort, about the photos he took of people working in cinema when he was just starting out [...] he suggested I host the exhibition in the gallery," Anne-Dominique Toussaint, a film producer who opened the Galerie Cinema in 2013, told RFI.
"And it made real sense, all these photos are sensational and represent, for the vast majority, actresses and actors."
At the end of the gallery is a small projection room. "I ask each artist I exhibit to provide me with a film, either one they made themselves, or one that someone else made, related to the exhibition," says Toussaint.
The short film Un Moment Si Doux, directed by Claudine Nougaret – Depardon's wife – is shown in the projection room throughout the exhibition.
Olympic dreams
Depardon has made 21 feature-length films and is represented in numerous photographic collections in the most prestigious museums.
He also took memorable photos during several Olympic Games such as Tokyo, Munich or Mexico.
Many of these photos will be on display at the Frac Bretagne, a contemporary art centre in Brittany from 15 June, in the exhibition called Les Jeux Olympiques 1964-1980.
► Les Années Déclic is at the Galerie Cinéma in Paris until 12 June. Then it will run at the Institut Lumière in Lyon from 19 June to 1 September 2024.
