Raymond Depardon pays tribute to the photographers who prompted him to try out other uses of photography, other relationships with that famous distance from the subject.

American photography was s decisive factor in shaping his appetite for what he calls the "lowlights" rather than highlights.

François Hébel, Director of Rencontres d’Arles, especially appreciates Depardon's "lowlight" appetite for "details of society whose far-reaching implications he discloses – investigating asylum, justice, the police, politicians, farmers,
the condition of Africa, urban and rural landscapes. He broke away from the news
spectacle and its famous actors, stripping society bare and asking questions of
democracy. It may seem paradoxical, but as he moved further from the news he became one of the most political of photographers, in the manner of a sociologist or philosopher."

Depardon's selected American influences are shown here (with acknowledged omissions of "Dorothea Lange, Nicholas Nixon and plenty of others: I'll come to them next time.")

See also samplings of Depardon's selection of "companions and fellow travelers", and his selection of "contemporary photographers of society and politics".