Micheline Dullin
Micheline Dumoulin known as Micheline Dullin (22 Feb. 1927, Paris — 19 December 2025, Martigues, France) was a French photographer and artist who covered Cambodia extensively from 1958 to 1964, documenting the ‘Golden Age’ of the Sangkum (Sangkat Reastr Niyum សង្គមរាស្ត្រនិយម, “People’s Socialist Communist) led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, working as official photographer along with photographer Robert Favart from 1960 to 1964.
An artist since young age, Micheline Dullin found herself immersed in the world of avant-garde cinema after marrying in 1946 French movie producer Claude Hauser, befriending leading artists of the time such as Oscar Dominguez, Hans Hartung, Goetz, Christine Boomeester, Max Ernst, Boris Vian, movie directors Chris Marker and Alain Resnais, who gifted her a Rolleiflex camera, thus triggering her passion for photography.
In 1956, she married photographer and filongrapher Christian Baugey and the couple worked across Bolivia and Peru for two years, photographying and painting new landscapes and people. In 1958, they moved to Cambodia as Baugey had been appointed UNESCO audiovisual media advisor to the Cambodian government. With a predilection for women’s and children’s portraits, she started to explore the countryside and cover the vast campaign of public works launched by the Sangkum under the guidance of architect Vann Molyvann, becoming fast friends with him and his wife, Trudy.
1) Prince Norodom Sihanouk greeting Micheline Dullin during a reception at the Royal Palace, 1963. 2) With Prince Sihanouk at Angkor. 3) At her Phnom Penh apartment-workshop. 4) Checking on the giant prints of her photographs of Prince Sihanouk welcoming Indonesian President Sukarno during one of his several visits to Cambodia. [all photos by Robert Favard, from Cambodge 1958 – 1964, Une vie de photographe, 2012)
1) Prince Norodom Sihanouk greeting Micheline Dullin during a reception at the Royal Palace, 1963. 2) With Prince Sihanouk at Angkor. 3) At her Phnom Penh apartment-workshop. 4) Checking on the giant prints of her photographs of Prince Sihanouk welcoming Indonesian President Sukarno during one of his several visits to Cambodia. [all photos by Robert Favard, from Cambodge 1958 – 1964, Une vie de photographe, 2012)
1) Prince Norodom Sihanouk greeting Micheline Dullin during a reception at the Royal Palace, 1963. 2) With Prince Sihanouk at Angkor. 3) At her Phnom Penh apartment-workshop. 4) Checking on the giant prints of her photographs of Prince Sihanouk welcoming Indonesian President Sukarno during one of his several visits to Cambodia. [all photos by Robert Favard, from Cambodge 1958 – 1964, Une vie de photographe, 2012)
1) Prince Norodom Sihanouk greeting Micheline Dullin during a reception at the Royal Palace, 1963. 2) With Prince Sihanouk at Angkor. 3) At her Phnom Penh apartment-workshop. 4) Checking on the giant prints of her photographs of Prince Sihanouk welcoming Indonesian President Sukarno during one of his several visits to Cambodia. [all photos by Robert Favard, from Cambodge 1958 – 1964, Une vie de photographe, 2012)
1) Prince Norodom Sihanouk greeting Micheline Dullin during a reception at the Royal Palace, 1963. 2) With Prince Sihanouk at Angkor. 3) At her Phnom Penh apartment-workshop. 4) Checking on the giant prints of her photographs of Prince Sihanouk welcoming Indonesian President Sukarno during one of his several visits to Cambodia. [all photos by Robert Favard, from Cambodge 1958 – 1964, Une vie de photographe, 2012)
From 1960, along with her new companion, Robert Favart, she covered all Prince Sihanouk’s public functions and domestic travels, when a still unknown incident led them to a sudden fall of grace: Dullin and Favart were requested to leave the country at once, and could only take their negatives with them when they left first to Laos, then Thailand, where they stayed until returning to France in 1966. In her book, Micheline Dullin hinted that her photographs of the wedding of Prince Sihanouk’s eldest daughter, Princess Buppha Devi, and the son of the ambassador of Italy, Bruno Forsinetti, earlier in 1963, might have been the reason, as they had been published in the French media without the Royal Palace’s consent. Her sudden departure occurred in July 1964, as the young princess, leading the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, was celebrated at Paris Opera for a performance attended by President Charles de Gaulle in person.
Even if Micheline Dullin had exhibited her paintings in Phnom Penh and Vientiane in the 1960s, it is only from 2004 that the historical value of her photographic work on modern Cambodia was recognized, first with a Paris exhibition at the initiative of Philux Association, then in 2006 in Phnom Penh, when her photos were shown during the events for the inauguration of the Bophana Center. In 2012, as the book Cambodia 1958 – 1964 came out, the city of Aulnay-sous-Bois, where she resided for many years, offered another exhibition. In 2013, Micheline Dullin’s work on Cambodia was featured at the Photo Phnom Penh Festival in an outdoor exhibition on the promenade of Tonle Sap River, and in 2025 the Festival organized a photo display at the National Museum of Cambodia.