Raymond Depardon: Desert

The African desert in black and white as seen by Raymond Depardon through 60 years of reportage, photography series and film shoots

Since his first assignment as a young photojournalist in Algeria in 1960, Raymond Depardon (born 1942), now a member of Magnum Photos, has felt a deep and intimate attachment to the Sahara Desert and the region’s inhabitants. His photographic and cinematographic eye was particularly drawn to the different cultural events in Chad, from its civil war to Oueddei’s accession to power and the filming of Un homme sans l’Occident (2002). His reports also took him on the road with Tuareg refugees in Mali and Paris-Dakar pilots in Libya and Niger; and he crossed all of these countries and more to produce his films Empty Quarter (1984) and La Captive du désert (1989). Spanning 11 countries in total, Desert is the ultimate tribute to the people and landscapes that have accompanied Depardon’s career for over 60 years.