Pierre Dieulefils was born in Malestroit (Morbihan) in 1862, the youngest of a family of five children. His father, a merchant in the village, died when he was five years old. After a mundane schooling, he worked for a while in a haberdashery, but this job did not satisfy his need for action and adventure, so he enlisted in the army in 1883.

Incorporated into the 24th artillery regiment in Vannes, he was appointed quartermaster sergeant a year later. In 1885, he volunteered to go to Tonkin, in the expeditionary force tasked with ensuring the "pacification" of the country, thus becoming both an actor and a witness to the French colonial enterprise in the north of present-day Vietnam.

By the Treaty of Tien-Tsin, signed in 1885, China recognized the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin, but internal resistance to the occupier remained very strong.

It was during his participation in the siege of Ba Dinh in 1887, the stronghold of the rebellion, that Dieulefils took his first photographs and began to develop a passion for this art.

He is promoted to the rank of chief master sergeant. Back in Malestroit the same year, on liberable leave, he gets engaged to a neighbor, Marie Glais (c. 1864 - 1955), but the army at that time still exercised matrimonial control : it only allowed a non-commissioned officer to marry if the future bride had a dowry or sufficient income. This is not the case for Marie, who comes from a modest background, so Dieulefils decides to end his military career.

He nevertheless returns to Tonkin : this region fascinates him and, in the context of French colonial expansion in Southeast Asia, gives all the chances of quick success to enterprising personalities. He settles in Hanoi, which at that time is experiencing spectacular transformations, and opens a photography shop there in 1888.

Dieulefils appears as one of the first professional photographers of European origin established in Tonkin.

His activity is both that of a photographer traveling throughout the country to harvest images, that of a studio technician ensuring the development of negatives and printing positive proofs, and that of a retailer, offering a wide range of items : negative plates, sensitive papers, products, cameras, and equipment.

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#2281 @417 - PM à Alice -Tonkin Yen The -
Halte à la hauteur de Cau Ré (groupe Lecanu)
- Dieulefils rouge 3327 - L’album de Georges

Source : Thierry Vincent, Bruno Martin