Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Raymond Depardon crisscrossed rural France with his 6 x 9 medium format camera by his side. As a result of his explorations, his black-and-white photographs tell the story of the land, the people – including manual labor and the isolation and fragility of small farming – and the beauty of the French countryside.
In October 2020, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain published Rural, a book gathering this impressive series of 86 black-and-white photographs; a tribute to the photographer’s roots and to the men and women he met during his journey.
With this new book as a starting point, on November 15, 2020, Raymond Depardon will have an online conversation with Clément Chéroux, Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Pauline Vermare, Cultural Director of Magnum Photos, New York.
It will be the occasion for Raymond Depardon to talk about his travels through France to photograph the land and the farm of his parents, but also about his unique relationship with the United States. He will also share brief extracts of his films – Ten Minutes of Silence for John Lennon (1980) and Modern Life (2008) – discussing the fixed and moving images at the service of a simple and singular narrative.
