Raymond Cauchetier. The Shoot Behind The Filming

”I didn’t want to shoot what the movie cameras were filming” Raymond Cauchetier

There is nothing better then a good painting or a good photo. But the photo has to have a story. You need to be able to dream around it, feel yourself part of the setting, read in the eyes of the characters, turn it into a whole book or make an entire movie out of it. I have some photos around the house that often make me stop while I walk around and watch them over and over again. I recently added a new one to my collection. This one is by Raymond Cauchetier.

Raymond Cauchetier (1920) is a French photographer, known for his work as a set photographer for many films of the French New Wave. His photographs are an important record of the New Wave directors at the beginning of their careers. Cauchetier began taking pictures while serving in the press corps of the French Air Force in Indochina where he bought his own Rolleiflex camera. When he returned to France, he failed to find work as a photojournalist, and after a job for the publisher Hubert Serra, Cauchetier became acquainted with Jean-Luc Godard that hired him as the set photographer for his debut film, À bout de souffle (1960). That was followed by other movies like and Jules et Jim by François Truffaut or Une femme est une femme where he meets the lead actress Anna Karina who becomes his wife the following year. Cauchetier stopped working as a set photographer in 1968 due to the job’s low pay.

The Guardian publishes in 2010 an interview by Jon Henley with Raymond Cauchetier in which he talks about his photography, the techniques he uses and what he wanted to accomplish. As himself used to say ‘this kind of photograph is uncontrollable, of course. You have to be ready, to anticipate, because by the time it takes for your brain to tell your finger to activate the shutter, the moment has gone. I love the balance in their gestures. My approach to set photography was really that of a photojournalist. Stills photography then was purely for publicity purposes; I was interested in the film-making process. I didn’t want to shoot what the movie cameras were filming.’