Sammlung CH-FGC - Gilles Caron Collection

Born on July 8, 1939 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Gilles Caron grew up in Maisons-Laffitte. After spending his childhood in Maisons-Laffitte, Gilles is sent in 1946 to a boarding school in Argentière (Haute-Savoie), following the separation of his parents, he will stay there seven years.

After completing his studies at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris, Gilles took a one-year course in journalism at the École des hautes études internationales in Paris in 1958. During the summer, he hitchhiked to Yugoslavia, Turkey and India.

After passing his civilian parachute exam in 1959, he was called up for his 28-month military service, 22 of which were in Algeria. Gilles is imprisoned for two months following his refusal to fight after the putsch. Gilles finishes his service with a ban on carrying weapons. When he returned to France in 1962, he married Marianne. They have two daughters together: Marjolaine born on March 9, 1963 and Clementine born on December 8, 1967.

Following an internship in 1964 with Patrice Molinard, an advertising and fashion photographer, Gilles joined the Apis agency (Agence Parisienne d'Information Sociale). There he meets Raymond Depardon, a photographer from the Dalmas agency, and participates in August in the shooting of La guerre est finie by Alain Resnais.

On February 19, 1966, Gilles Caron made the front page of France-Soir with Marcel Leroy-Finville (imprisoned for the kidnapping and assassination of Mehdi Ben Barka) during his walk in the Santé prison. In May he works in Paris for the fashion agency Photographic Service directed by Giancarlo Botti. In December he joins the founding team of Gamma composed of Raymond Depardon, Hubert Henrotte, Jean Monteux and Hugues Vassal.

Between June 5 and 10, 1967 he covered the Six Day War and entered Jerusalem with the Israeli army and then reached the Suez Canal with the commanding forces led by General Ariel Sharon. The publication of his images in Paris Match made the Gamma agency the leading agency in the world. In November and December he is in Vietnam notably at Đắk Tô, during one of the hardest battles of the conflict (Hill 875).

In April 1968 he covered the civil war in Biafra. In May the student revolts in Paris begin and spread throughout France, provoking a general strike. Gilles Caron covers the student demonstrations in Paris on a daily basis; he follows President Charles de Gaulle on an official visit to Romania between May 14 and 18. In July he makes a second trip to Biafra with Raymond Depardon. In September he travels to Mexico City following the violent repression of student demonstrations on the eve of the Olympic Games. In November he made his third report in Biafra.

In August 1969 Gilles Caron covers the Catholic demonstrations in Londonderry and Belfast in Northern Ireland, "The Troubles". A few days later, he follows the anniversary of the crushing of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks. In its August 30 issue, Paris Match published the two reports simultaneously.

In January and February 1970 he was part of an expedition to the Chadian Tibesti region organized by Robert Pledge, with Raymond Depardon and Michel Honorin, to cover the rebellion of the Toubous against the central government in Fort Lamy (N'djamena) supported by the French government. The four journalists were ambushed and held prisoner for a month by government forces.
That same year, in April, he went to Cambodia the day after Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed by General Lon Nol.
On April 5, 1970, he was the first of twenty or so journalists and development workers of all nationalities to disappear with Swiss reporter Guy Hannoteaux and French development worker Michel Visot, on Route No. 1 linking Cambodia to Vietnam in an area controlled by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.