His eye in my hand

1961 Algiers - Between the spring and the autumn of this pivotal year, Raymond Depardon, a 19-year-old reporter at the Dalmas press agency, is sent to several times in Algeria. During his stays in the capital, he seized scenes from everyday life, showing two worlds where " Muslims" and Europeans in Algeria, and captures the tension rising in a city where the presence of the Secret Army Organization (OAS) is increasing more threatening. Evian - The first round of negotiations between France and the representatives of the National Liberation Front (FLN) to end the war Algeria took place in Evian, from May 20 to June 13, 1961. One of the rare journalists French to be accredited to the Algerian delegation, in the villa of Bois d'Avault, on the shores of Lake Geneva (Swiss side), the young Depardon seized the "downtime" that is so dear to him. Oranie - During the negotiations, he is part of a press trip organized in Oranie, to carry out a report there in Magra and Oued El Kheir (Kamel Daoud's native region) where there is a " cooperative village”. 2019 Still in black and white, Raymond Depardon photography Algiers, while the city beats to the rhythm of the Hirak, a vast movement protest started in February 2019. Then he joined Oran by train, where, For five days, he meets Kamel Daoud for long strolls in the city. What is striking when we look at these photographs from 2019: the omnipresence of women, veiled or not, in public spaces. No one better than Raymond Depardon failed to grasp this obvious fact. Kamel Daoud, for his part, imbued with photographs from both periods, wrote four very important texts different: three for 1961, one for 2019. These are free creations, seizing Algerian-French history with lyricism, passion and audacity specific to the Algerian columnist and writer. The book is also striped with “comets”, short texts – haikus, visions –, flashes of light ricocheting off a photo thanks to the “acoustic”, refined and elegant graphics of Lili Fleury: they vibrate, reverberate, resonate like musical lines.