Little is known of Franc Chauvassaignes. He lived in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and was the mayor of Saint Champanelle and a member of the consul general of Puy-de-Dôme by 1880. His interest in the surrounding area's natural resources led him to publish a paper on the restocking of region's rivers and lakes in 1880.
It is unknown when and how Chauvassaignes began to photograph, or for how long, although it is known that he was a member of the Societe de la photographie. Only one bound volume of his work has surfaced, which contained landscape, architectural, and figurative studies. It is possible that Chauvassaignes was trained as a painter, and that his interests in art and science led him to investigate photography. He experimented with both the waxed-paper and collodion processes, and made salted paper and albumen prints, as well as developed-out photographs.