In 1966, Depardon co-founded Gamma, a photojournalism agency and then became its director in 1973. In 1977, he received a Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of conflict zones in Chad. In 1979, he became a full member of the international photography cooperative, Magnum. In 2012, he took the official portrait of French President François Hollande.
In terms of filmmaking, Depardon’s style is influenced by the raw, unnarrated approach of cinéma vérité and direct cinema. Both Reporters (1981) and New York, N.Y. (1986) won the César Award for best short documentary. La Captive du Désert (1990) was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His 1994 film Délits Flagrants won best feature documentary at the César Awards, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2000, the Kraków Film Festival honored Depardon with the Dragon of Dragons Lifetime Achievement Award.