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Serge de Sazo

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Serge Sazonoff(October 8, 1915 – January 24, 2012[1]), also known as Serge de Sazo, was a Russian born French photographer.

Biography

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Serge de Sazo was born atStavropol(in the province of Don). His father was a colonel in theCossacksand his mother was the daughter of an industrialist. After living with his family in Turkey, Greece and the United States, he arrived inParisin 1922 at the age of seven.

He got his first job in 1933 in themagazineVUand there he met and quickly became the assistant ofGaston Parisand joined the Universal press agency for which he produced his first reportage. in 1937 he collaborated with Charles Rado and Raymond Grosset who founded theRaphoagency.

World War II

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De Sazo enlisted in the French Army and was a sergeant with the 8Zouave.Demobilized in 1940, he started working as a freelance reporter for cinema reviews. Living on the Rue de Rivoli and armed with hisRolleiflex,he recorded skirmishes of theliberation of Parisas theResistanceliberated the Town Hall. His pictures were published all over the world, and established his reputation.[2]

Post-war

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From 1945 when Parisian night life recommenced, with cabaret, jazz, the music-hall and cinema, and creative artistic activity flourished in the 1950s, he worked as a freelance photojournalist for clients including Air France,[3]V: magazine illustré du Mouvement de libération nationale,[4]Aviation,[5]Icare,[6]His pin-ups and nudes were regularly published in the magazineParis-Hollywood[7]and are predominant inParis Sex-Appealduring its brief revival 1950-1, and his naked swimmers appeared in an international exhibition of photographs of women organised byGens d'Imagesat theMusée d'Orsayin 1955 and were mentioned, amongst those ofEmmanuel Sougez,Jacques Adriaan (U.S.A.), Honjo Mitsuro (Japan) and Mario Finazzi (Italy) inCombat;"One should not miss the underwater ballet of Serge de Sazo".[8]

Underwater photography

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While working on a project in 1950 aboutnaturismon the island of Levant,[7]de Sazo met Jean-Albert Föex, previously author ofLa Fille perpendiculairephotographed by Robert Charroux.Föex introduced him to diving. Enthralled by the gracious movements of the weightless body and wanting to photograph it, he invented a waterproof casing for his Rolleiflex. He used this home-made casing to take the first undersea photographs, with his wife as the subject.[9]After a few minor improvements he photographed a troop of dancers performing under water; “The Mermaids of Levant” was an immediate success.[10]Föex, increasingly interested in the possibility of undersea living, introduced him to the new technology ofscuba-diving.He was fascinated by sea flora and wild life, and in 1954 with Föex and Roger Brand, they published the first French magazine dedicated to the undersea worldL’aventure sous-marinepublished until 1981.[1]Subsequently, he divided his time between nudist underwater imagery and work as a press photographer.

Later career

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Having retired to the French Alps in the mid 1980s, de Sazo died on 24 January 2012.[11]

Publications

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  • Nus,photographies d'André De Dienes, Serge De Sazo et Marcel Véronèse, Album No.7, Société Parisienne, 1950
  • L'île aux sirènesde J.A. Foex, photographies de S. de Sazo, Édition Optimistes, 1953
  • Mon album des profondeursde Gilbert Doukan, photographies de S. de Sazo, Édition Elsevier,1954
  • Exploration sous-marine de la Biblede J.A. Foex, photographies de S. de Sazo, Édition France-Empire, 1955
  • Riviera, la nuit,Robert Jacques, photographs by Pierre Manciet and Serge de Sazo, La Pensée Moderne, 1959
  • Bonjour ParisbyFrançois Brigneau,ouvrage collectif: S. de Sazo, Jacqueline Nièpce,Robert Doisneauetc., Des Éditions Sun, 1969
  • Paris, ses poètes, ses chansons,Serge de Sazo andBernard Delvaille,Éditions Seghers, 1977[12]
  • Femme sorciére!,photographies de Serge de Sazo, ouvrage collectif, Édition Ion, 2013
  • French Maidens,by Charles Sennet with a photographic supplement by Serge de Sazo, The Naturist, London.

References

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  1. ^Biographie
  2. ^Clark, Catherine E. (2016). "Capturing the moment, picturing history: photographs of the liberation of Paris".The American Historical Review.121(3): 824–860.doi:10.1093/ahr/121.3.824.
  3. ^"'Cliches de...' credit in colophon ".Air-France Revue.14(Spring–Autumn). 1 March 1949.
  4. ^"Photos de numero".V: Magazine illustré du MLN (Mouvement de libération nationale)(300): 2. 2 July 1950.
  5. ^de Sazo, Serge (15 December 1954)."Ponte de Vue: Images du Monde (photo credit)".Aviation Magazine(112): 3.
  6. ^"Groupe de plongeurs en sortie d'exploration" au centre international de plongée de Bendor (var) photo Serge de Sazo ".Icare: Cahiers de l'Aviation(October): n.p. 1960.
  7. ^abDa Silva, J. (2021). "L'Invention de la Levantine. Ile du levant 1947-1968".Corps(in French).19(1): 97–107.
  8. ^"A la Galerie d'Orsay: Les plus grands photographes internationaux chantent la femme (nue) en 200 images".Combat: Organe du Mouvement de libération française.14(3359): 3. 20 April 1955 – via BnF.
  9. ^Foëx, Jean-Albert; de Sao, Serge; Rousseau, Georges (1951).L'Ile du Levant, paradis des naturistes(1st ed.). Paris, France: Édition Optimistes.OCLC459647214.
  10. ^"Par Douze Brasses De Fond Huit Sirènes Donnent Une Nouvelle Version Du Cimetière Marin".La Presse.10 August 1951. p. 8.Retrieved2023-04-22.
  11. ^"Sazo, Serge de (1915-2012) - Notice documentaire IdRef".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-04-22.Retrieved2013-07-04.
  12. ^Mambrino, Jean (1978-08-01)."Book review; Paris, ses poètes, ses chansons".Études: Revue fondée en 1856 par des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus(in French): 271.Retrieved2023-04-21– via Gallica.
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