From New York, With Love: Raymond Depardon Returns to the City That Never Sleeps
From New York, With Love: Raymond Depardon Returns to the City That Never Sleeps
2 minute read
Translation of caption from Liberation: 1:30 pm, May 2, 2017. Wall Street, at the corner of Brooks Brothers.
Mario Garcia, “case analyst”, is taking his lunch break. French politics? He doesn’t know much about it…only fashion interests him. Here in New York, of the 10,438 voters of the first round, 52.35% voted for Macron and only 3.15% for Marine Le Pen.Raymond Depardon—Magnum Photos
For Raymond Depardon, the celebrated French photographer and filmmaker, the assignment was simple: to send back, each day, one image he had shot in New York. For one month in 1981, these “humorous, observational photographic notes” about the city that never sleeps were published, daily, in the French newspaper Liberation. “It allowed me to be a photographer before anything else, before being a photojournalist,” Depardon tells TIME.
But the assignment also proved pivotal in French photography. Produced at a time when first-person, subjective narratives weren’t as popular there as in the U.S. – a country that was fully embracing the idea of new journalism – it freed Depardon to experiment with his craft.
Now, more than 35 years later, the Magnum photographer is back in New York, where he produced an 11-day sequel of his “Correspondance New Yorkaise,” published, once again, by Liberation [see the full series here].
“The city has changed and it hasn’t at the same time,” Depardon tells TIME. New York is still bustling. It has long been the home of an incredible mix of cultures, says the 74-year-old photographer, “but, it has become even more global. You can meet with, see the entire planet. New York is a lesson in tolerance.”
Raymond Depardon at work in New York.Chloé Mossessian, courtesy of French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
Perhaps what has really changed, then, is the photographer.
“I’m calmer,” he says. “Before, when I was 30, I was never satisfied. I was never happy when I was chasing reality, which is, in essence, unattainable. At one point, I needed to slow down.”
That’s why he chose to trade his 35mm Leica for a large-format camera, replicating 19th-century methods. The camera allows him to reflect on the snapshots he’s making. “Plus, with a camera like that, you can photograph anyone,” he says. “They all say yes. Gone is that idea of the stolen photograph.”
Raymond Depardon is a French photographer and filmmaker. He is represented by Magnum Photos. Depardon’s 11 photographs shot in 2017, alongside his original series from the 1980s, are on show at the FIAF gallery in New York until July 1. The exhibition is curated by Francois Hebel.
Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent
Translation of caption from Liberation: 1:30 pm, May 2, 2017. Wall Street, at the corner of Brooks Brothers.
Mario Garcia, “case analyst”, is taking his lunch break. French politics? He doesn’t know much about it…only fashion interests him. Here in New York, of the 10,438 voters of the first round, 52.35% voted for Macron and only 3.15% for Marine Le Pen.
Raymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosA photograph from Raymond Depardon's 1981 assignmentRaymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosTranslation of caption from Liberation: 9:30 am, May 3, 2017, 5th Avenue. It’s Fort Knox in midtown Manhattan. The man in the red tie has not skimped on the gold color, we are reminded of Scrooge McDuck on this already outrageously wealthy avenue. Designed in 1981 and finished by 1985, nobody payed attention to this ingot-shaped building. Melania would like to live here permanently, causing enormous security issues on top of an exuberant price tag. Good news, after all, the number of New York Times subscribers has doubled since Donald Trump’s arrival in office.
Raymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosA photograph from Raymond Depardon's 1981 assignmentRaymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosTranslation of caption from Liberation: May 6, 10:15 am, Harlem. Maïa Dibie, accompanied by her daughter Inna, voted this morning at the polling station of the French American Charter School, which offers bilingual education (half in French, half in English) in northern Manhattan. Maïa is director of an artist’s studio, she has lived here since 2003. Among the French voters of New York, Emmanuel Macron received 94.7% of the votes in the second round of the presidential elections.Raymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosA photograph from Raymond Depardon's 1981 assignmentRaymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosTranslation of caption from Liberation: May 8, 9 am, Union Square. It’s one of the rare remaining newsstands in the city. This morning, even the New York Post’s headline talks of the French election “FRANCE’S NEW LEADER, MACRON: Oui did it!” For the New York Times, it’s “SHUNNING AN EMERGENT FAR RIGHT.” France has elected Macron as its president while rejecting the emerging far right. Same story for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times: “MACRON CRUISES TO FRENCH VICTORY” and “MACRON SWEEPS TO VICTORY”. Macron sails to a victory and wins the presidential election. The city is in a good mood. It’s chilly out, but the sun is shining. Raymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosA photograph from Raymond Depardon's 1981 assignmentRaymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosA photograph from Raymond Depardon's 1981 assignmentRaymond Depardon—Magnum PhotosTranslation of caption from Liberation: 11:15 am, May 4, 2017, Bowery. The health care reform seems to have roused American congressmen on the Capitol. We see this on the all-day news channels that are incredible as always, with their looping weather reports, various news tidbits and sophisticated journalists in the studio. It’s here in New York, 35 years ago, that I first had the idea to make my movie, “Faits Divers,” in Paris. I stayed three months alone, with a microphone on a camera, at the Fifth District police station. Raymond Depardon—Magnum Photos
