14 November 2013 – 10 February 2014 · Grand Palais, Paris

Un moment si doux

A blue car with striped cushions against the rear window in Harar — Harar, Ethiopia, 2013. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

In one of the early photographs, Édith Piaf sits against a wall, looking just past the camera. More than half a century later, in Harar, a blue car fills a narrow street. Raymond Depardon gave both pictures to the press for the Grand Palais exhibition. Colour was there at the beginning, and it gave him a reason to keep looking.

The exhibition brought together more than 150 colour photographs, from the first years in Paris to work made for the show in 2013. It also gave room to journeys far from an assignment. In Puerto Edén, Chile, a window frame holds a stretch of water and the mountain beyond.

Photographs in colour

Édith Piaf seated against a wall in a blue-green sweater — Édith Piaf. Paris, 1959. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Water and mountains seen through a window in Puerto Edén — Puerto Edén, Chile, 2007. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

A woman in red seen from behind — Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

A child in pink in a Glasgow street — Glasgow, Scotland, 1980. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

The Grand Palais exhibition catalogue