![\"Mademoiselle](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/88-28046-Mademoiselle-Anita-Paris-1951.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\tMademoiselle Anita, Paris, 1951<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
It earned M Doisneau a few francs too, but it seems that didn\u2019t take the edge off the court cases it created, firstly with a couple who thought they were in the picture, and finally with the actress who actually is in the picture. That is said to have rather ruined the final years of Doisneau\u2019s life. Doisneau however was about very much more than this one picture, as a new book called Robert Doisneau<\/a> shows us. Of course the famous picture is included, but it rests well beyond the half-way point, by which stage we have been given plenty of opportunity to form opinions of the work he loved most.<\/p>\n Doisneau started his photographic life in the studio of a graphics house, before moving on to work as a studio assistant and then as an industrial photographer for the car maker Renault. It was only after five years photographing \u2018people who get up early\u2019 that he was fired for being late and became a freelance photojournalist with the Rapho Agency \u2013 and got to take the more journalistic and documentary pictures he enjoyed.<\/p>\n What has survived of his work, and forms the subject of this book, is his street photography, his portraiture and his atmospheric, moving, positive and beautifully taken pictures of life in the towns and cities of France. The book shows us a bit of his industrial work at the start, and near the back we see five pictures of the thousands he must have shot when he worked at Vogue \u2013 but he wasn\u2019t interested in either subject matter.<\/p>\n\t\t Caf\u00e9 noir et blanc, Joinville-le-Pont, 1948<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n Where he came alive and where he produced the most stunning images was out in the streets observing the world and the people in it. Remarkably he was a shy person and nervous of being seen taking pictures of strangers. The distance and his hidden status comes across in some of his work \u2013 but not in much of it. He preferred to shoot with a Rolleiflex TTL camera that he could look down into so he wouldn\u2019t be looking at his subjects as he photographed them, and no doubt the almost silent click of the shutter would have been inaudible in the racket of expressive French conversation in the streets, cafes and bars he worked in.<\/p>\n Unlike the Magnum members of the time, who required that the rebate of their negatives be printed around their pictures to prove the composition was all in-camera, Doisneau happily crops his square 6x6cm frame to all sorts of oblongs according to the requirements of the scene. This book shows few square pictures, considering most of his work was shot square during the 1930-60s period with which this book deals.<\/p>\n This only shows his priorities were at odds with the well-known photographers of the day. Doisneau was great friends with Cartier-Bresson \u2013 whose portrait of Doisneau graces the first pages \u2013 but that friendship didn\u2019t convince him to take up Cartier-Bresson\u2019s invitation to join Magnum.<\/p>\n\t\t La Premi\u00e8re Ma\u00eetresse, Paris, 1935<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n What comes across in this book is that Doisneau didn\u2019t take himself too seriously. There are lots of serious subjects covered, but there is also a lot of fun and joy in his pictures. It\u2019s clear that he likes people and photographs them for the love of humanity rather than with the somewhat sneering, superior approach that other photographers can adopt. He celebrates life and how others choose to spend theirs.<\/p>\n Doisneau is quoted as having said \u2018The world that I tried to show was a world in which I could feel at ease, where people would be nice, where I would find the kindness that I wished to experience. My photos were a kind of proof that this world can exist.\u2019 And that mission is well illustrated in these pages. The pictures are not of drama, conflict, sadness or misery. In many ways these are easier things to photograph and report on, but Doisneau chooses to look on the bright side, to find scenes where people are enjoying themselves. The pages brighten our day instead of weighing us down.<\/p>\n It is easy to get carried away when looking at old pictures, and to be swayed into believing they are good just because they are old. There are many pictures taken yesterday that were they taken today would not get a second look. Doisneau\u2019s pictures, at least those in this book, stand the test of time and are all still fabulous to look at. They may have got better with time, I don\u2019t know, as now they carry a historical perspective on top of their intrinsic social and visual value.<\/p>\n\t\t Maurice Baquet dans le m\u00e9tro, Paris, 1958<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n I think what has made the pictures last so well is that the subjects Doisneau chose to shoot, and the way he chose to shoot them, appeal to our basic humanity. They are of the things we will always find interesting. He does show us everyday life, but not all of everyday life. He picks the bits that will make us smile, feel happy and will uplift us.<\/p>\n This is what makes his pictures universally appealing. They are little moments when the juxtaposition of elements and people come together to create an amusing episode \u2013 something of note in what would normally be the unremarkable. They are, indeed, decisive moments.<\/p>\n His compositions all have great physical depth, and he controls our eye from foreground to the distance without us even realising. He rarely shoots straight on, and uses disappearing and converging lines to show us the subject of his focus and the environment in which he found it. He has a genius for timing, for knowing what will happen next and a keen eye for displays of human behaviour.<\/p>\n \u2018People like my photos because they see in them what they would see if they stopped rushing about and took the time to enjoy the city,\u2019 he is said to have remarked, and it is true. Normal people rush around the streets with their head occupied by their own life; Doisneau hangs around with his head occupied by what everyone else is doing. He said knowing how to wait was a key skill a photographer must master \u2013 standing still, observing and anticipating the moment the scene will come to fruition, when the investment will pay off.<\/p>\n\t\t Un regard oblique, Paris, 1948<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n There is a section near the end of the book, before the Vogue images, that shows Doisneau\u2019s portraiture. While being in a room with someone for the agreed purpose of taking their picture is a very different situation to the passing happenstance of the street, there is a powerful connection between these portraits and the rest of the work in the book.<\/p>\n The portraits are a mix of the formal and the casual, but all offer us an intimate connection with some part of the subject\u2019s character. They are photographed without effect or technique to get in the way of us seeing. The images have a naturalism that allows us to be a part of the scene. We aren\u2019t left to admire the person from a distance, but feel we are there in the room.<\/p>\n This is a most enjoyable book, and one that has collected a sample of Doisneau\u2019s work that shows some of his breadth while emphasising what he enjoyed most \u2013 and what he was best at. We get a sense of the man behind the camera, and a feel-good glow from his love of the world around him and of humanity in the towns and cities of France in this period.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a definable and consistent style that runs from one page to the next, and in each image there is as much for the layman to delight in as there is for the photography student to learn. As cheesy as \u2018Le Baiser de l\u2019H\u00f4tel de Ville\u2019 has become through over-use, and as shocked as the world was when we found out it was staged, it is still a first-class picture, and very much in Doisneau\u2019s style \u2013 that\u2019s why we like it so much. He was clearly a great master of photography and our life and work can only improve by looking at his.<\/p>\n Robert Doisneau is published by Silvana Editoriale<\/a>, RRP \u00a325. ISBN: 9788836649747.<\/p>\n Is it a bird or is it a plane? Capturing Dod Miller\u2019s Birdmen<\/a><\/p>\n The untold story of Vivian Maier<\/a><\/p>\n Ed Kashi: 40 years of abandoned moments<\/a><\/p>\n Fake news: how Jonas Bendiksen hoodwinked the photographic community with The Book of Veles<\/a><\/p>\n\n Follow AP on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new book of Robert Doisneau\u2019s work brings us a much wider perspective on his life and photography beyond the world-famous kiss, says Damien Demolder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":166742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[663],"tags":[1778,3134,494],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-166741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_reviews","tag-photography-book","tag-robert-doisneau","tag-street-photography"],"yoast_head":"\nIndoors to out<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\tVisual value<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\tOne-to-one<\/h3>\n
Feel-good glow<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\n
\n\nFurther reading:<\/h3>\n\n