Raymond Depardon: Desert
Published on 4. September 2025
Book
Hardback
364 pages
978-2-86925-190-8 (ISBN)
Description
The desert as seen by Raymond Depardon through 60 years of political reporting, photographic commissions, film shoots and personal explorations in North Africa and the Middle East. Eleven countries, their landscapes, peoples and conflicts, immortalized in black and white by a legend of photojournalism.
From his first trip to Algeria as a photojournalist in 1960, Raymond Depardon instantly developed a deep and intimate attachment to the Saharan desert and its various peoples.
His photographic and cinematographic eye is particularly focused on the different regions of Chad, from the civil war that affected the country, during which he followed the rebels into the desert (1970) and covered the Claustre affair (1975), the attack on Faya-Largeau (1978) and Goukouni Oueddei's accession to power (1979), to the shooting of the film Un homme sans l'Occident among the azzas of Borkou (2001). His reports also took him on the route of the richess of the Middle East (1968), of Tuareg refugees in Mali (1974) and Paris-Dakar pilots in Libya and Niger (1990). To shoot his films Empty Quarter (1984) and La Captive du désert (1989), he crossed Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
First with Claudine Nougaret, then with their children, he shares his love of the Sahara, the Sahel and their inhabitants. This book is a photographic tribute to all the African deserts that have accompanied Raymond Depardon's career and life for over sixty years.
From his first trip to Algeria as a photojournalist in 1960, Raymond Depardon instantly developed a deep and intimate attachment to the Saharan desert and its various peoples.
His photographic and cinematographic eye is particularly focused on the different regions of Chad, from the civil war that affected the country, during which he followed the rebels into the desert (1970) and covered the Claustre affair (1975), the attack on Faya-Largeau (1978) and Goukouni Oueddei's accession to power (1979), to the shooting of the film Un homme sans l'Occident among the azzas of Borkou (2001). His reports also took him on the route of the richess of the Middle East (1968), of Tuareg refugees in Mali (1974) and Paris-Dakar pilots in Libya and Niger (1990). To shoot his films Empty Quarter (1984) and La Captive du désert (1989), he crossed Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
First with Claudine Nougaret, then with their children, he shares his love of the Sahara, the Sahel and their inhabitants. This book is a photographic tribute to all the African deserts that have accompanied Raymond Depardon's career and life for over sixty years.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Paris
France
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
250 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 311 mm
Width: 225 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
1974 gr
ISBN-13
978-2-86925-190-8 (9782869251908)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Co-founder of the Gamma agency in 1967, Raymond Depardon joined the Magnum agency in 1978, shooting reportage all over the world until the early 1980s. Thereafter, while continuing to photograph on a daily basis, he shot documentary films in direct cinema.
Raymond Depardon uses still and moving images to create a simple and unique style. From his first images taken in the early 1960s to his most recent trips to Africa and the United States, his work is characterized by a profoundly human approach. Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret have made numerous films for the cinema; they have participated in a dozen Fondation Cartier exhibitions and presented several installations of their films: Amours (1997), Déserts (2000), Chasseurs et Chamans (2003), 7 × 3 (2004), Donner la parole (2008), Au bonheur des Maths (2011), 8e étage (2014) and Mon arbre (2019).
Raymond Depardon has published over sixty books of photographs, including, with the Fondation Cartier, Bolivia (2017), Rural (2019) and Communes (2021).
Raymond Depardon uses still and moving images to create a simple and unique style. From his first images taken in the early 1960s to his most recent trips to Africa and the United States, his work is characterized by a profoundly human approach. Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret have made numerous films for the cinema; they have participated in a dozen Fondation Cartier exhibitions and presented several installations of their films: Amours (1997), Déserts (2000), Chasseurs et Chamans (2003), 7 × 3 (2004), Donner la parole (2008), Au bonheur des Maths (2011), 8e étage (2014) and Mon arbre (2019).
Raymond Depardon has published over sixty books of photographs, including, with the Fondation Cartier, Bolivia (2017), Rural (2019) and Communes (2021).