Robert Doisneau: A Photographer's Life - Hardcover

Hamilton, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789200201 ISBN 13: 9780789200204

Publisher: Abbeville Press, 1995

Synopsis

The first authorized biography available, Robert Doisneau provides an intimate rich account of the life of the French photographer who captured the streets and elusive spaces of Paris as the city entered the modern era.
Drawing not only upon Doisneau's previously unpublished archives but also on conversations with the photographer in his final years, this book examines every aspect of Doisneau's work, including the techniques he used. Emphasized are his periods of engagement with the birth of photojournalism in the 1930s; with humanist social realism in the 1940s and 1950s; and with montage and art brut in the 1960s. The photographs, made by Doisneau on his own and while working for Vogue, Life, and other well-known magazines, reveal how the familiar is swept away, a theme germane to city-dwellers everywhere.

About this title

Review:

Robert Doisneau: A Photographer's Life covers the renowned work of the French photographer famous for the 1950 picture Le Baiser de le Hotel de Ville. This frequently reproduced portrait of an attractive couple frozen in an embrace while Parisian city life whirls around them is an archetypal emblem of romance. It's pretty surprising to learn that Doisneau hired young actors for his entire kissing series; nevertheless, the moment rings undeniably true. Maybe it's his beginnings in advertising or his fashion work for Vogue that lend his images equal parts of real life and theater.

Doisneau (1912-1994) spent his lifetime recording life in France. With his combination of photojournalism and art, he captured nightclubs, the Parisian working-class suburbs, national monuments, weddings, and famous folk like Picasso. Some of the most riveting pictures are of resistance fighters in the midst of the Occupation--young men in civilian clothes, sportcoats and all, standing with guns behind homemade barricades. Accompanying the hundreds of pictures are in-depth chapters that discuss the different periods in Doisneau's life and work. From his childhood, through the war, and on to his fascination with the banlieues (suburbs), the well-researched text gives invaluable insight into this influential photographer's practice. --J.P.Cohen

From the Publisher:

The definitive volume on the life and work of Robert Doisneau, the French photographer who captured the mood and character of Paris as the city entered the modern age.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abbeville Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0789200201
• ISBN 13: 9780789200204
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384