Raymond Cauchetier: The Photographer of the French New Wave Celebrated at Aguttes

Aguttes pays tribute to Raymond Cauchetier, photographer of the French New Wave, with an exceptional auction of 218 photographs from the Kaoru and Raymond Cauchetier Collection. Presented first at the Aguttes Saint-Germain-des-Prés office in Paris, and subsequently in Neuilly, the photographs will be auctioned at Le Cinéma Le Saint Germain des Prés, the legendary cinema associated with the movement. These film photographs reveal remarkable behind-the-scenes images from celebrated productions and portray the leading figures of the French New Wave.

A Landmark Auction Paying Tribute to Raymond Cauchetier

Following the donation of 1,200 vintage prints by Raymond Cauchetier to the Bibliothèque nationale de France by his wife, Kaoru Cauchetier, in February 2026, which will be presented in a forthcoming exhibition, Aguttes will offer 218 photographs by this major photographer of the French New Wave at auction on Monday, 12 October 2026, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. This selection represents the final part of Raymond Cauchetier's photographic archive following this important donation.

Ahead of the auction, Aguttes is organising a week devoted to the French New Wave at its Paris Saint-Germain-des-Prés office and at the legendary cinema associated with the movement, combining an exhibition with film screenings. Through this initiative, the auction house's Pop Culture & Memorabilia department sheds new light on the war photojournalist who became the photographer of the French New Wave.

A rare ensemble of prints exploring love, the French New Wave, Paris, women and freedom will be exhibited before being offered at auction.

Love & the French New Wave in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

“To pay tribute to Raymond, I wanted to make a gesture that felt essential to me: in February 2026, I donated his works to the BnF so that they could become part of France's national heritage and continue to bear witness to his unique vision. But I also wanted lovers of the French New Wave to have the opportunity to preserve a part of this history. For this reason, I set aside a small selection of vintage prints, together with several later prints produced for major exhibitions, including the Salon de la Photo, the tribute marking the 30th anniversary of François Truffaut's death, and the Rencontres d'Arles.

I did not choose Aguttes by chance for the sale of this collection. I like to believe that fate played a part. It was in Saint-Germain that Raymond and I first met. It therefore seemed only natural that the final encounter with his work should take place in this very same neighbourhood. The circle is complete.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés is much more than a place. It is a setting filled with memories, encounters, creativity and love. Every street, every café, every step awakens an emotion. Returning there, I felt as though I were rediscovering a part of our story.”

Kaoru Cauchetier, wife of Raymond Cauchetier

Raymond Cauchetier, From War Photojournalist to Photographer of the French New Wave

Born in Paris in 1920, Cauchetier experienced a revelation at the age of eleven when he discovered the temple of Angkor Wat through his kitchen window during the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition.

Twenty years later, in 1951, he discovered photography in Indochina, where he was serving in the French Air Force. From Saigon to the theatres of war at Diên Biên Phu and Hoa Binh, he used a Rolleiflex to produce images of the conflict, portraits of everyday life and local populations, and photographs of cities and landscapes, already revealing a profoundly human and independent eye. His first album, Ciel de Guerre en Indochine (War Skies over Indochina, 1953), met with considerable success.

Upon returning to France, he began working as a film-set photographer in 1956 and soon found himself documenting the emergence of the French New Wave. At the time, the set photographer was “a technician whose role was poorly defined. Above all, he was expected to take a photograph from the camera's position at the end of a shot, then disappear immediately.” As Jean-Luc Godard was revolutionising French cinema in the 1960s, Raymond Cauchetier captured some of the most iconic images of the French New Wave, thereby helping to shape our understanding of this avant-garde movement.

At the dawn of the 1960s, a new cinematic language emerged in France. A young generation of directors sought to break with the conventions of traditional filmmaking and invented a freer approach to cinema: shooting on location, using lightweight cameras, adopting more spontaneous dialogue and transforming actors into modern icons. This bold break became known as the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave, an expression used by Françoise Giroud in L'Express in 1957 to describe this new generation before it came to designate the French cinematic movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The French New Wave overturned the established conventions of traditional cinema.

Raymond Cauchetier recalled: “Jean-Luc Godard broke all the rules. It was a revolution. For my part, I reinvented film-set photography, at my own risk. I was told not to work like a photojournalist and to take conventional photographs instead. But my aim was to capture exceptional moments.”

Introduced to producer Georges de Beauregard by Hubert Serra, Cauchetier worked notably on À bout de souffle (Breathless), Jean-Luc Godard's first feature film, shot in 1959, which would transform world cinema. He also photographed productions by François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Agnès Varda, Jean-Pierre Melville, Bertrand Tavernier and Jacques Demy.

Raymond Cauchetier's photography was itself innovative, although it would take half a century for its originality to receive widespread recognition. His instinct for capturing images and the initiative for which he was criticised at the time, together with an eye that departed radically from the conventions of film-set photography, made his approach unique. His work is a remarkable collection of candid images, stolen kisses, photographs of people at work, behind-the-scenes moments captured outside the frame of the film itself, and intimate scenes from the set.

Rediscovered after decades in storage, his photographs are now exhibited around the world. They have helped to preserve the spirit of the French New Wave in our collective memory.

A Week Dedicated to the French New Wave

Through a series of events organised from 1 to 12 October 2026 in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the legendary neighbourhood of the French New Wave, Aguttes and Kaoru Cauchetier are paying tribute to Raymond Cauchetier's work.

This auction offers a unique opportunity to acquire an iconic or previously unseen print from the French New Wave before the other 1,200 vintage prints enter the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Programme of Events

“Le Saint Germain Des Prés, in association with Aguttes auction house, is organising French New Wave Week, bringing Raymond Cauchetier's work into the spotlight. Long nicknamed ‘Georges de Beauregard's cinema’, in tribute to the great producer of À bout de souffle (Breathless), our cinema is reconnecting today with its earliest years, when the leading filmmakers of the French New Wave, including Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Éric Rohmer, passed through its doors.”

Mathilde Lamour, Director of Le Saint Germain des Prés cinema

• Opening evening, Thursday, 1 October 2026 at 8 p.m. Screening of À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960) at Le Saint Germain des Prés cinema, in the presence of Kaoru Cauchetier and Antoine de Baecque, film historian and critic.

• Exhibition of photographs from the auction, from 7 to 11 October 2026 at the Aguttes Saint-Germain-des-Prés office in Paris.

• Les plus beaux films de la Nouvelle Vague dans l'objectif de Raymond Cauchetier (The Greatest Films of the French New Wave Through the Lens of Raymond Cauchetier), a retrospective of French New Wave films on which Raymond Cauchetier worked, from 5 to 11 October 2026 at Le Saint Germain des Prés cinema.
- À bout de Souffle (Breathless) by Jean-Luc Godard, Thursday, October 1 at 8.pm.
- Une Femme est une femme (A Woman Is a Woman) by Jean-Luc Godard, Wednesday, October 7, at 8:30 p.m.
- La Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels) by Jacques Demy, Friday, October 9, at 8:30 p.m.
- Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim) by François Truffaut, Saturday, October 10, at 8:30 p.m.
- La Peau douce (The Soft Skin) by François Truffaut, Sunday, October 11, at 8 p.m.
Réserver une place de cinéma

• Aguttes auction of the Kaoru and Raymond Cauchetier photographic collection, Monday, 12 October 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at Le Saint Germain des Prés cinema.

• French New Wave Week, 5–11 October 2026

Opening
Le Cinéma Le Saint Germain des Prés
22 rue Guillaume Apollinaire, 75006 Paris
Thursday, 1 October

Public Exhibition
Aguttes Neuilly
Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 October
10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2–5:30 p.m.
Saturday: closes at 5 p.m.

Auction
Le Cinéma Le Saint Germain des Prés
22 rue Guillaume Apollinaire, 75006 Paris
Monday, 12 October at 5:30 p.m.

Cover photograph: À bout de souffle (Breathless), Jean-Luc Godard.
La Descente des Champs-Élysées (Walking Down the Champs-Élysées), Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1959.

© Raymond Cauchetier