Photo: Raymond Depardon and Kamel Daoud exhibited in Paris for an Algeria "that brings people together"

This artistic approach tries to "get rid of the usual reading grids" which are current in the two countries concerning their relationship, adds the writer, interviewed from abroad.

Born from the meeting between the two men around photos taken by Raymond Depardon in 1961 in Algeria, at the age of 19, and most of them never published, the exhibition is held at the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris, from Tuesday until July on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Evian agreements.

Signed on March 18, 1962, they officially marked the end of the Algerian war and its independence.

Entitled "His eye in my hand", it presents 80 photographs by Raymond Depardon in 1961 in Algiers and during the first talks in Evian, then in 2019 in Algiers and Oran, accompanied by unpublished texts by Kamel Daoud, journalist and writer (" Meursault, counter-inquiry").

This work in pairs first gave birth to an eponymous book, published by the Algerian editions Barzakh.

French photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon in front of a portrait of himself and Algerian writer Kamel Daoud as part of the exhibition "His eye in my hand", on February 3, 2022 at the Arab World Institute (IMA ) in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

Neither French nor Algerian, the point of view is like a bridge that connects the two perspectives, "of a universal order", said Mr. Daoud to AFP.

- Restore complexity -

He "attempts to restore the complexity beyond the usual historical narrative in one country as in the other. What I see in Raymond's gaze is the human and the complex (...) He is acts of flesh, of men, of denial, of perdition, of tearing, which should be brought to light in the telling of the official story, "adds the author.

"I tried to look at his photos as if I wasn't Algerian while being one. I liked Raymond's snapshot cult," he says.

French photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon in front of one of his photos for the exhibition "His eye in my hand", on February 3, 2022 at the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

In 1961, says Raymond Depardon in front of his photos, "no longer any photographer among my elders wanted to go there (in Algeria, editor's note), they had made the barricades, the speech in Algiers by General De Gaulle, the putsch in Algiers. No one wanted to publish these photos either."

"We are just after the referendum (on the independence of Algeria, editor's note), the period is terribly painful for all" and "the tense atmosphere between the metropolis and Algeria".

"I had never known that, there was a misunderstanding. All the women in my native region (the Saône valley, editor's note) were angry with those who deprived them of their eldest sons, who had gone to military service (in Algeria), of their children (some of whom) did not return", he recalls.

"I go there like that and it goes badly", despite his "Leica to go fast" and his "telephoto lens", he says.

"I take a few photos and I have my camera broken, I have to hide, I rent a hotel room from which I take photos, I go up on the balconies (...) We feared the attacks, people did not want to be photographed, we did not have the possibility of dialogue, neither with the Algerians, nor with the Europeans who were going to leave".

The photographer and director Raymond Depardon in front of his cameras presented for the exhibition "His eye in my hand", on February 3, 2022 at the Institute of the Arab World (IMA) in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

- Welcomed "as a friend" -

These Algerian events "were decisive" for his career, which then led him to Chad and other African countries.

"Someone had to be able to talk about it", continues the photographer, who chose to entrust his shots to Kamel Daoud, "so that he appropriates them".

Among them: the Evian talks between France and the National Liberation Front (FLN), for which he alone is accredited to the Algerian delegation.

French photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon in front of his photos for the exhibition "His eye in my hand", on February 3, 2022 at the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

"All the (Algerian) negotiators are dead," he said, referring to the "silence of the editors when they discovered the photos" of these negotiators in suits.

Raymond Depardon returned with emotion to Algiers then to Oran in 2019 "so that Algeria finally has a modern image" of itself, he says, evoking with pleasure a trip where he was welcomed "as a friend, not nostalgic".

© 2022 AFP