Denis Roche on Photography: A Dialogue with Gilles Mora

In 'La Photographie est interminable', published by Éditions du Seuil, Denis Roche responds to questions from critic and photo historian Gilles Mora. The freewheeling dialogue covers thirty-five years of Roche's photographic practice, from his beginnings and the choice of photography over writing, to formal issues like framing, horizontals, verticals, light and shadow. They discuss places (Roche and his wife Françoise traveled extensively), dates, the relationship to time and death, desire, the role of chance, the importance of the act and the instant in taking a picture, the work of the unconscious, boredom, anguish, jubilation, childhood, other photographers, and love. Roche tells Cartier-Bresson that every photo is autobiographical, which explains the abundance of self-portraits, often with Françoise. He asserts that photography, like literature, is interminable, always striving for 'even more beauty, even more oneself, even more Denis Roche'. The interview is marked by friendship and frankness.