Raymond Depardon, a singular witness to a century of change, is a legendary photographer and documentary filmmaker active since the early 1960s. His documentaries are inseparable from his approach as a photographer, standing alongside his effort to establish the intellectual foundations of photography as a form. Through a creative process of thought exceeding fidelity to the moment, Depardon’s films took in the impulse of journalism while surpassing its limits. Alongside works capturing the dynamics of law enforcement and institutions of confinement, his Profils paysans series turns portraiture—the very subject of his photographic inquiry—into an artistic method, taking as its material the agrarian world at the root of human life.
Les Films du Losange, which manages most of Depardon’s work, has recently restored and remastered his films, bringing forward a comprehensive view of his oeuvre. This archival program focuses on an accomplished body of work while speaking to the archivist’s calling to record and preserve the human faces, labor, and ways of life vanishing under contemporary conditions. Its ten films encompass Depardon’s principal subjects: justice, farmers, and the recorder, or journalist. Marking the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, this program is presented with the support of the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France to the Republic of Korea (SCAC) and co-organized with Seoul Art Cinema, which will present the same program as a touring edition in November.