Gamma: A story about photographers, the story of an agency, one of the best. An Éditions de la Martinère book is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is astounding. The texts by Hubert Henrotte and Floris de Bonneville are sumptuous. Each week, The Eye of Photography will publish some images from what was the golden era of photojournalism. Today: a selection of Raymond Depardon’s best photos.
Raymond Depardon’s first assignment entailed bringing in Gilles Caron. From then on, he could devote himself to his own work. Only one thing bothered him. How should he behave? Should he be happy to report on what someone asks him to report on, or was it better to take initiative ? He owed this uncertainty to his former status as an employee at Dalmas. He was doing both to start. I suggested that he should cover the marriage of Henri de Laborde de Monpezat to the princess Margrethe of Denmark during the Six-Day War. Not too interested, Raymond pouted. Therefore, I retorted, “Listen, that will pay the electricity at least, and also the press requests it .”
After the Pope’s trip to Turkey, he followed up with a report on King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and then with a trip to Abu Dhabi. Coming back to Paris, he followed up with Charlie Chaplin at Castel, Peter and Jane Fonda, who were passing by the capital, and Mireille Darc at Ted Lapidus’ place. Then he would take on some big subjects in Hollywood. He started by covering the filming of the Roger Vadim film Pretty Maids All in a Row with Rock Hudson. In light of this success, Monique Kouznetzoff organized a series of meeting with superstars for him: John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson…
From 1968 on, Raymond was able to give his all on large-scale reports: the Pope’s trip to Latin America, the Olympics in Mexico, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Richard Nixon’s election campaign, land reform in Chile. From that point forward, Raymond decided for himself. Some of his photos became icons that could be seen some fifty years later in the large exhibition the grand Palais dedicated to his work.
“Those years with Gamma were those of freedom,” emphasized Raymond in an interview at his home in August 2004. “This freedom that we didn’t have previously as employees. It was Gamma, the founding school of freedom, an essential experience from which everything that I do today comes. The founders of the agency, with Hubert Henrotte as leader, had the idea to unite the photographers so that they had a certain independence and regained their dignity. It’s Hubert who did it and nobody else. Not me. But it was I who took advantage of it. Without this idea, I would not have become who I am.”
And Raymond Depardon wanted to go further. The film camera tempted him for a long time. He would make his very first attempts in 1968 in Biafra, then would continue with the Palach affair, a Czech student who set himself on fire at Wenceslas Square during the spring in Prague. His poignant images of people in mourning, all dressed in black, and who burst into tears at the passing funeral procession are deeply moving, and his film would win many prizes.
Later, it would be his Chad adventure, where he would go many times, fascinated by the desert and the story of this ethnologist, a prisoner in Tibesti of the leader of the rebels Hissène Habré. The release of his film on the news broadcast 20 Heures would play a determinant role in the liberation of Françoise Claustre. Today, Raymond has made over twenty films, without abandoning photography. We are happy to have had him as a partner.
Hubert Henrotte
Gamma, Une histoire de photographes [Gamma, A Story of Photographers]
Published by La Martinière
59€
