Born in Belgium, Fernand Windels worked in publishing and photography in Paris, where in 1935 he brought out a reference work, Le tapis, un art, une industrie. In 1940, he and his wife took refuge in the Dordogne. They lived in Sarlat and then Montignac, where he became a member of the Perigord Historical and Archaeological Society. It was there he met Father Breuil, who invited him to photograph Lascaux's parietal figures, a task that became a collaboration of "long hours in the cave" and resulted in numerous works. In 1948, Windels published, with the support of Breuil (who was then in South Africa), and in collaboration with Annette Laming-Emperaire, Lascaux: Chapelle Sixtine de la préhistoire [Lascaux: Sistine Chapel of Prehistory]. He also played an important role in the creation of Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art, which Breuil published in 1952.
DELLUC (Brigitte), DELLUC (Gilles). – Fernand Windels, le photographe de Lascaux, in : Le Livre du Jubilé de Lascaux (1940-1990), Périgueux, Société historique et archéologique du Périgord, 1990, p. 75-80