Paul Castelnau studied geography at the Sorbonne. He was initially mobilized with the Geographical Service of the French Army, then with the Photographic Section. His wartime autochromes were initially taken along the Western front (the Champagne, Alsace, North, and Belgium) and after January 1918, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Cyprus. Along with Fernand Cuville, their autochromes covered the destruction, troop movements, and camp life. At war's end, Castelnau photographed the rebuilding of Aisne and the Marne. Castelnau received his thesis in 1920, and then joined with Cuville as a photographer/geographer for Albert Kahn's Archives of the Planet. In the mid-1920s Castelnau authored a documentary film on the life of termites. In about 1930 he became a surveyor. Castelnau was accused of being a collaborator and executed in June 1944 although the evidence has apparently never been clearly established.
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Genealogy of Paul Castelnau
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