Signed Raymond Depardon - Rural [UNIQUE SIGNED COPY IN THE WEB ] - 2020

Exceptionally signed copy on the title page by Raymond Depardon (born 1942), unique and unreachable online as a signed copy, extremely rare in unsigned copies. 120 pages and about 86 full-page black-and-white photographs in a large format (21 cm x 32 cm). In excellent condition, practically as new.

Raymond Depardon, a farmer’s son, traveled through rural France with his 6x9 photographic studio, traveling and living in a van to linger in the most remote corners of the countryside. The book’s opening photograph shows his father in the family farm kitchen in 1972. In his own words: photographing and filming farmers implies entering their intimacy and building trust over the years. From this exploration of the agricultural world, he produced black-and-white photographs that tell of the land, the people, manual labor, isolation, and the fragility of small farms, but also the beauty of rural French landscapes. Scenes bathed in sun or shaded by clouds—sheep on isolated hillsides, villages with vast spaces—sit alongside these same places in winter, offering new contrasts: between pristine snow and the dark earth churned by farmers and their livestock a few steps away. In the 1990s, Raymond Depardon returned several times to revisit certain farmers, and the photographs are localized and dated in the captions. His studies of rural France blend intimate observation with the evocative timelessness of the places.

Raymond Depardon is a farmer’s son, and the family farm at Villefranche-sur-Saône is almost by the Saône, on a hill in the middle of fields, and he dedicated an entire book, La ferme du Garet, to his parents’ farm. Depardon discovers photography at age 12 thanks to a 6x6 camera gifted by his older brother and takes his first shots at the Garet farm. After his primary school certificate, he becomes an apprentice at a photography shop in Villefranche-sur-Saône, also takes correspondence courses, and sets up a darkroom on his parents’ farm. In 1958, at age 16, he becomes in Paris an assistant to a photographer, then quickly works as an independent freelancer and press photographer, and over time becomes “probably the most recognized photographer in France after Henri Cartier-Bresson.”

Book from my personal collection, kept with the greatest care, in excellent condition with only minimal wear to the dust jacket (see photo). Protected shipment with reinforced packaging and tracked international postal service guaranteed. For multiple purchases, possible grouped shipping with reimbursement of any excess postage paid via PayPal.

1.4 kg, excluding packaging.