Paul de Cordon

By an amusing coincidence, his great-grandmother on his mother’s side was Louise de Séganville, daughter of Colonel Baron de Séganville who had been the regiment’s commanding officer between 1813 and 1815.

It was at the 2nd Hussards that he had two encounters that would mean a lot in his life.

He befriended Jacques Dufilho who, after interrupting his studies in dental prosthesis, had signed an eighteen-month enlistment contract.

* Dufilho will become one of his dearest friends when they meet again after the war.

There he also meets Jean Devaivre who completed his military service at “Chamborant’’.

Jean Devaivre then went to work in cinema and became a great director, it was he who enabled Paul de Cordon, after the war, to embark on a new life.

Devaivre was not only a cineaste but also an authentic character actor: working during the occupation for the German group Continental Films in Paris, he was at the same time a very active member of the French resistance.

His exploits include flying from the Nevers region to London clandestinely after having made the journey from Paris to Nevers in the afternoon... by bicycle.

Bertrand Tavernier's film “Laissez-passer’’ is directly inspired by his life, as recounted in his autobiography, “Action’’.

Paul de Cordon (born in 1908 in Toulouse - died in 1998 in Paris) was a French photographer known for his photographs of the circus and the Crazy Horse Saloon.

He went to the theater and visited exhibitions with his first cousin, Aimar du Crozet, who was much older than him and took him "under his wing" to serve as his guide to the Paris of the 1920s.

Aimar du Crozet also had a passion for horses and races.

He was the owner of Master Bob, who won the 1924 Paris Grand Steeple Chase * and who became so famous an athlete that he is mentioned by Ernest Hemingway at the start of his book ‘’Death in the Afternoon’’.

In the 1930s, he thus took part in dozens of races on tracks in France and across Europe.

In 1939, the 2nd Hussards broke up into reconnaissance groups which took part in the 1940 battles on the Ardennes front, * Paul de Cordon participated in these actions in a mounted squadron and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

He ended his captivity in the fortress of Colditz where he was liberated by the US military on April 16, 1945.

In 1945 he married Dilette de Rigaud de Vaudreuil and they had three children.

He collaborated with Europe 1 in the years 1960/70.

Paul de Cordon even tried his hand at television by co-presenting the Cirques du Monde program with Jean Richard on channel A2.

His works are present in prestigious collections such as those of the National Library of France (BNF), the Rodin museum and W.M. Hunt.

Paul de Cordon was born in Toulouse.

His father, Comte Pierre de Cordon, was a cavalry officer; his mother, Marthe de Boyer-Montegut, a cultivated, book-loving woman, was the daughter of Paul de Boyer- Montégut, who, for many years, was mayor of Cugnaux, near Toulouse, where he owned the château de Maurens.

It was in Maurens that Paul de Cordon, as a child, spent his holidays and it was there that he discovered horses which were to become one of the great passions of his life.

His grandfather Boyer-Montegut was what was the French call, a “Homme de cheval’’ whose four-in-hand teams were renowned in Toulouse and across the region.

As a child, he also lived for several years in Mainz (Germany), where his father was stationed after the First World War.

It was around this time that he started taking pictures with a small camera, a gift from his parents.

He learned the basic techniques from an old German photographer during long hours spent in his shop.

It was also in Germany where his attraction to the circus was born.

The large travelling circuses, like Althoff, then crisscrossed the country with quality shows and numerous animals.

As a teenager, he was a boarder in a Paris school.

He was then able to discover a very intense artistic and cultural life thanks to his aunt, the Marquise du Crozet, his mother's elder sister.

He attended performances by Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes which, after the war, came on tour every year to Paris.

In 1961 he participated alongside Edouard Boubat, Agnès Varda, Man Ray, Frank Horvat, William Klein and Robert Doisneau in the mythical exhibition "Metamorphosis and invention of a face" around the portrait of Anne- Marie Edvina.

He was also an equestrian, fashion and advertising photographer, notably for Nikon and Beaulieu.

He was also recognized for his portraits and his nudes for which he was, in 1964, considered one of the greatest photographers in the world together with Guy Bourdin and Lucien Clergue.

He produced portraits of many personalities such as Johnny Hallyday, Gilbert Bécaud, Mireille Darc, Jacques Brel, Fernand Raynaud, Anna Karina, Samy Davis Jr., Jeanne Moreau, Steve McQueen and his long-time friends, Daniel Sorano and Jacques Dufilho as well as Gonzague Saint Bris with whom he was very close and who nicknamed him “The Toulouse-Lautrec of photography’’.

After his studies Paul de Cordon enlisted in the 18th Dragons cavalry regiment.

More than a true military vocation, it was once again the love of horses that motivated him.

At that time almost all the cavalry regiments were mounted and each maintained and trained horses to enter in show jumping events and steeple chases, in which both officers and noncommissioned officers participated.

After the 18th Dragons he was assigned to the 2nd Hussards, in Tarbes, the “Chamborant’’, where he continued his favorite activities; training and riding horses.