Paul Lancrenon

In parallel with his military career, he led numerous expeditions and voyages, bringing back many photographic images. He was the author of a series of pictures on Brittany, from where his wife had originated. In 1891, he toured Europe during a six months holiday; leaving Belfort by bicycle, his trip took him as far as Russia. In 1896, he descended the course of the Upper Rhine from the Danube and the Volga in canoe. He published a notebook of his expedition under the title Trois mille lieues à la pagaie, de la Seine à la Volga ("Three thousand leagues by paddle, from the Seine to the Volga") which led to him being proposed for the Ordre des Palmes académiques. He was also the author of several mountain trips. He crossed the Alps to carry out reconnaissances of passes. From these expeditions, he published in 1906 Impressions d'hiver dans les Alpes. De la mer bleue au Mont-Blanc ("Impressions of winter in the Alps. From the blue sea to Mont Blanc"). He also crossed the Pyrenees in 1907 where he notably photographed Spanish migrants going to France. He died in 1922 at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital, the result of illness contracted at the front. He was declared "mort pour la France" in 1925. In 1987, the French government acquired his photographic archive, comprising more than 5,000 negatives. They are now preserved in the French photographic archives.