The Olympic Games seen by Raymond Depardon

You have covered six Olympics, what is your best memory?

Mexico City in 1968, because of the atmosphere in the stadium, the records that were broken, the performances of African athletes, the raised fists of African-American athletes… It was another America. Something very moving happened there. The public supported everyone, especially the losers. When desperate athletes missed the podium, the whole stadium stood up, everyone tossed their hats, it made me miss a lot of photos!

At the time, we did not always calculate the number of medals obtained by each country. We weren’t too concerned about the French result. We were just watching the games.

You often say that it took you several Olympics to succeed in capturing the movement of athletes, what makes sports photography so difficult?

Everything is happening very quickly. In a stadium, we are diving, which is good for athletics, but as soon as there is throwing, high jumping or pole vaulting, it is more complicated. For an athletics race everyone stops, but for competitions like jumping, it lasts all morning and you can miss the record. Moreover, almost no one managed to photograph Bob Beamon*’s jump, apart from a Mexican pool photographer who worked for the Olympic Games committee. I was in the press box talking, I didn’t see his jump, I just heard a clamor. However, the conditions were not met for Bob Beamon to achieve this feat. He had gotten drunk on tequila the day before because his girlfriend had left him and his university had cut his scholarship…

What makes certain sports photos so memorable?

Sometimes it’s a bit of a coincidence. In Montreal, for example, I had the good instinct to take color photos of the gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Because of the time difference, all of France discovered this little Romanian girl live in the evening on TV. Suddenly all the newspapers wanted to have photos of her. She became famous like that.

And some disciplines are more photogenic than others, gymnastics for example, particularly the balance beam. There is a magnifying effect of photography on the bodies of athletes, it’s almost like doing fashion photography…

Entrance to Frac Bretagne with the Raymond Depardon exhibition

• Useful informationRaymond Depardon, the Olympic Games 1964 – 1980
• . At Frac Bretagne until January 5, 2025. 19 avenue André Mussat 35000 Rennes. www.fracbretagne.fr
• Exhibition labeled Cultural Olympiad by Paris 2024. This exhibition is part of the Exporama artistic program. Hours of operation :^{Tuesday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Monday, December 25 and 1} is
• January. Prices :