Christophe Agou
Christophe Agou (1969–2015), a self-taught French photographer born in Montbrison, moved to New York in 1992. His photographs taken in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, were published by several major international newspapers. Upon returning to his native region, he began in 2002 to photograph the Forez Plain and the farming families he encountered. For nearly eight years, he shared their daily lives and forged relationships with them based on trust and longevity. From these encounters emerged “Face au silence,” an intimate photographic work that goes beyond a mere documentary of rural life. Faces, gestures, landscapes, and interiors come together to form a sensitive chronicle of lives shaped by work and the rhythm of the seasons. “Sans adieu” is the cinematic extension of this same project. Filmed in the Forez Plain with the people he met for “Face au silence,” the film revisits certain situations and figures from the photographic series, including Claudette, age 75. Presented at Cannes in 2017, it bears witness, like the photographs, to a disappearing rural world. Agou had completed a first cut before his passing.
