Pierre de Fenoÿl set off for New York in late 1971 with a contract as picture editor for the magazine Photo.
He stayed for one year, visiting museums and galleries, and making contact with André Kertész, Les Krims and Duane Michals. He was even invited by Jean-Paul Goude, the young artistic director of the magazine Esquire, to take part in a popular TV programme, The Mike Douglas Show.
He approached a publisher about a project on New York, for which he took numerous street photographs. He then travelled across the United States alone on a motorbike, going via Alabama, where he took touching photographs of black families. His photographs of the United States, being shown here for the first time, bear the imprint of various American influences, notably those of William Klein, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, although they display no hint of denunciation or social critique.
