Richard Avedon photographs the American West, far from myth, close to the forgotten, at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris.

Once you've seen it, it's hard to forget the piercing gaze of this blond teenager in overalls, his eyebrows furrowed, staring straight into your eyes while brandishing a rattlesnake he's just gutted. Angelism and cruelty compete in this image, which demonstrates the talent of photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004), who took this portrait in 1979 in Texas during the great annual snake hunt in the small town of Sweetwater. It was the very beginning of his iconic project "In the American West," which saw him travel through 17 US states and photograph nearly a thousand people, from 1979 to 1984, showing a poor and needy America, far removed from the clichés and myth of the glorious American West. A series he conducted without any sociological intent or concern for objectivity. "This is a fictional West , he will write. I don't believe that the West in these portraits is more accurate than the West of John Wayne."

The American photographer, a major figure in fashion photography in the second half of the ^20th century, was known for his spectacular exhibitions and his taste for huge formats. It's not certain that he would have appreciated the exhibition devoted to this striking series at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris: here, the work is displayed throughout the building in a very classic hanging, in a single line, and in unusual small formats (40 × 50 centimeters). "These are the reference prints, made by the photographer at the time, to make the prints for his book and produce the enlargements presented in his exhibitions," explains Clément Chéroux, the director of the foundation. These prints were not intended to be exhibited, but we won't be picky: of remarkable quality, they allow the public, for the first time in Europe, to discover this exceptional work in its entirety. And even in small print, these portraits are still just as powerful.

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