It is now 25 years since military service was abolished in France.

The results are unexpected: loss of social ties, ignorance of others, disappearance of the sense of mutual aid, citizenship, service to one’s country. Many politicians wonder about reinstating military service, and the topic keeps coming up in the media.

At the age of 19, Philippe Graton was called for duty and incorporated into the 8th Infantry Regiment in Noyon, France. For one year, he took photographs of his conscript’s life (which was prohibited).

Forty years later, Filigranes Editions bring together this unpublished work, 58 beautiful silver photographs, sometimes funny, but undoubtedly an exceptional testimony to this institution that marked the life of every young man from the French Revolution until its abolition by President Chirac in 1996.