Raymond Depardon

Raymond Depardon is a French photographer, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, France in 1942. He began taking photographs on his family's farm in Garet at the age of 12 and was apprenticed to a photographer-optician in Villefranche-sur-Saône before leaving for Paris in 1958. In 1960, he joined the Dalmas agency in Paris as a reporter then co-founded the Gamma agency in 1966. As a photojournalist he travelled to conflict zones including Algeria, Vietnam, and chap. In 1978, he joined Magnum photos before leaving in the 1990s to return to his family's farm. He is also known for documentary short and feature films and made his first fiction film in 1984.