We continue our interviews with the photographers exhibited at Visa pour l'Image, the world's largest photojournalism festival.

Image courtesy of François Le Diascorn / Raph - Eyedea

François Le Diascorn was never really attracted to the United States of America, that is until he met his wife from Oregon. He wasn't particularly interested in photography either. 'I didn't really understood why people would take photos instead of taking the time to look at the scenes they were photographing.' A visit to India changed that. 'This country gave me a taste for the visual,' he tells BJP's news editor Olivier Laurent on top of the Castillet in Perpignan.

This trip to India would change his life in many ways. Meeting his future wife on that trip, Le Diascorn was bound for the US when she couldn't say no to a producer role back in Oregon. There, he would discover breathtaking landscapes 'with forests diving into the ocean.'

But, 'Oregon isn't really representative of the US. When he receives a grant from a French organisation, he finally goes on a quest for 'weird America.' For one year, accompanied by his wife, he would travel across the US, visiting all states apart from Hawaii, Alaska and North Dakota – don't ask him why, he doesn't know. 'America is weird enough, I didn't have to look for it. The material came to me,' he says. He remembers one day in 1983 when he saw his first drive-in mortuary. 'People would stay in their cars, order a casket and then sign the paperwork before driving off,' he explains, laughing with his wife.

The following year, he was screened at the Rencontres d'Arles festival, and since then, has been going back to the US every two years. His most recent trip, in 2009, allowed him to witness President Barack Obama's inauguration, of which a photo is included in his exhibition.

The exhibition was set up following another one in Paris organised by the Maison des Etats-Unis, a travel centre set up to promote travel in the US. The curator contacted Jean-François Leroy to have the exhibition included at this year's Visa, and Le Diascorn believes Obama's election might have been key in Leroy's decision to add the French photographer to this year's roaster.

His exhibition is all in black-and-white, a style he prefers and got used to in his early days as a photographer. He is often saddened to see this style disappear. 'The only times you see projects in black-and-white is when it's a pretty dramatic story,' he says. 'Then magazines will ask for it.' His exhibition, dubbed Only in America, is also one of the rare light-hearted shows at Visa.

'There are a lot of tough subjects being shown at Visa,' he says. 'You're facing, especially during the nightly projections, an accumulation of drug-related, war-related or disease-related stories. At the end of it, you really get the blues. And I can understand why magazines publish less and less of these.'

For more about François Le Diascorn, visit his website at www.lediascorn.com.