Robert Doisneau, humanist humour
« French photographer (1912-1994), figure of humanist photography and author of the Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville. »
Born in Gentilly in 1912, trained in lithography, Doisneau joined Renault as an industrial photographer in 1934 and was fired in 1939 for chronic lateness. He freelanced thereafter for Vogue, Life, Réalités. His kindness, gentle irony and stubborn devotion to the suburbs shaped his style.
Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville (1950), a commission for Life, became the emblematic image of Paris worldwide — later revealed to be staged, which takes nothing from its power. Picasso's Bread Rolls (1952), The Children's Magnet (1944): he saw the street as a theatre in which everyone played their part.
Author of more than 450,000 negatives, Doisneau looked at France with eyes both nostalgic and lucid. The Parisian suburbs, which he photographed tirelessly, owe him an enormous visual memory. He died in Montrouge in 1994.