Charles Lansiaux (1855-1939) became a photographer at the end of the 19th century. He established his own business in 1903, describing his company purpose as “Artistic and industrial photography, city works, emergency works, interior photography with artificial light, enlargements, amateur documentary photography.”
At the beginning of the war in 1914, he started documenting daily life in Paris, far from the frontline. The resulting series of over 1000 images, titled “Aspects of Paris during the war of 1914” was not initially intended for publication but to be preserved as a testimony of what had happened. The Paris Historical library purchased the images as they were taken.
1915. Ambulance. Arrival seriously injured.
1915. Serbian wounded soldier.
1915. Man selling newspapers on the street because of the impaired securities on the stock exchange.
1914. Sign explaining that the owner of this shop has his two sons mobilized.
1915. An award ceremony in the courtyard of Les Invalides. A legless soldier on a stretcher.
1914. Belarusian refugees in the Paris circus.
1916. General Auguste-Ivan-Edmond, the military governor of Paris.
1916. Haxo Street. The damage caused by the bombs of the German airships.
1917. The arrival of refugees from the suburbs to the East Station.
1918. The devastation in the Saint-Paul.
1918. Albert I of Belgium.
1914. Military cars in the Grand Palace.
1918. Protection of monuments of Paris during the war. Versailles.
1918. Protection of monuments of Paris during the war. Versailles.
1918. Store Van Cleef & Arpels, 22. Place Vendôme.
1918. Armistice Day.
1918. Armistice Day.
1914. Eastern Railway Station of Paris.
1918. Rue Jean-Robert.
1918. Balloons in the Tuileries Gardens.
1918. Place de la Concorde. German airship and “sausage”.
1919. Rue de la Tour des Dames.
1914. Hospital in the arena.
1914. Train in a Paris station.
