Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau (French: [ʁɔbɛʁ dwano]; 14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994)^[1] was a French photographer. In the 1930s he used a Leica on the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism.^[2] He is renowned for his 1950 image Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall), a photograph of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris. Doisneau was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1984.^[1]

Photographic career

Doisneau was known for his modest, playful, and ironic images of amusing juxtapositions, mingling social classes, and eccentrics in contemporary Paris streets and cafes. Influenced by the work of André Kertész, Eugène Atget, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, in more than twenty books he presented a charming vision of human frailty and life as a series of quiet, incongruous moments.

The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.

— Robert Doisneau

Doisneau's work gives unusual prominence and dignity to children's street culture; returning again and again to the theme of children at play in the city, unfettered by parents. His work treats their play with seriousness and respect.

Early life

Doisneau's father, a plumber, died in active service in World War I when Robert was about four. His mother died when he was seven. He then was raised by an unloving aunt.^[1][3]

At thirteen he enrolled at the École Estienne, a craft school from which he graduated in 1929 with diplomas in engraving and lithography. There he had his first contact with the arts, taking classes in figure drawing and still life.

When he was 16 he took up amateur photography, but was reportedly so shy that he started by photographing cobble-stones before progressing to children and then adults.^[3]

At the end of the 1920s Doisneau found work as a draughtsman (lettering artist) in the advertising industry at Atelier Ullmann (Ullmann Studio), a creative graphics studio that specialised in the pharmaceutical industry. Here he took an opportunity to change career by also acting as camera assistant in the studio and then becoming a staff photographer.^[3][4][5]

Photography in the 1930s

In 1931 he left both the studio and advertising, taking a job as an assistant with the modernist photographer André Vigneau.^[3][4][5]

In 1932 he sold his first photographic story to Excelsior magazine.^[1]

In 1934 he began working as an industrial advertising photographer for the Renault car factory at Boulogne-Billancourt.^[3] Working at Renault increased Doisneau's interest in working with photography and people. Five years later in 1939, he was dismissed because he was constantly late. He was forced to try freelance advertising, engraving, and postcard photography to earn his living. At that time the French postcard industry was the largest in Europe, postcards served as greetings cards as well as vacation souvenirs.^[6] In 1991 he said that the years at the Renault car factory marked "the beginning of his career as a photographer and the end of his youth."

In 1939 he was later hired by Charles Rado of the Rapho photographic agency and travelled throughout France in search of picture stories. This is where he took his first professional street photographs.

War service and resistance

Doisneau worked at the Rapho agency until the outbreak of World War II, whereupon he was drafted into the French army as both a soldier and photographer. He was in the army until 1940 and from then until the end of the war in 1945 used his draughtsmanship, lettering artistry, and engraving skills to forge passports and identification papers for the French Resistance.

Post-war photography

Doisneau (left) and André Kertész in 1975, by Wolfgang H. Wögerer, at Arles

Some of Doisneau's most memorable photographs were taken after the war. He returned to freelance photography and sold photographs to Life and other international magazines. He briefly joined the Alliance Photo Agency but rejoined the Rapho agency in 1946 and remained with them throughout his working life, despite receiving an invitation from Henri Cartier-Bresson to join Magnum Photos.^[1][6]

His photographs never ridiculed the subjects; thus he refused to photograph women whose heads had been shaved as punishment for sleeping with Germans.^[3]

I don't photograph life as it is, but life as I would like it to be.

— Robert Doisneau^[3]

In 1948 he was contracted by Vogue to work as a fashion photographer. The editors believed he would bring a fresh and more casual look the magazine but Doisneau didn’t enjoy photographing beautiful women in elegant surroundings; he preferred street photography. When he could escape from the studio, he photographed ever more in the streets of Paris.

Group XV was established in 1946 in Paris to promote photography as art and drawing attention to the preservation of French photographic heritage. Doisneau joined the Group in 1950 and participated alongside Rene-Jacques, Willy Ronis, and Pierre Jahan.

The 1950s were Doisneau's peak, but the 1960s were his wilderness years. In the 1970s Europe began to change and editors looked for new reportage that would show the sense of a new social era. All over Europe, the old-style picture magazines were closing as television received the public's attention. Doisneau continued to work, producing children's books, advertising photography, and celebrity portraits including Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, and Pablo Picasso.

Doisneau worked with writers and poets such as Blaise Cendrars and Jacques Prévert, and he credited Prevert with giving him the confidence to photograph the everyday street scenes that most people simply ignored.^[1]

Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (The Kiss)

In 1950 Doisneau created his most recognizable work for Life – Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville), a photograph of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris,^[7] which became an internationally recognised symbol of young love in Paris. The identity of the couple remained a mystery until 1992.^[8]

Jean and Denise Lavergne erroneously believed themselves to be the couple in The Kiss, and when Robert and Annette Doisneau (his older daughter and also his assistant at the time) met them for lunch in the 1980s he "did not want to shatter their dream" so he said nothing. This resulted in them taking him to court for "taking their picture without their knowledge", because under French law an individual owns the rights to their own likeness. The court action forced Doisneau to reveal that he posed the shot using Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud, lovers whom he had just seen kissing, but had not photographed initially because of his natural reserve; he approached them and asked if they would repeat the kiss. He won the court case against the Lavergnes.^{[1][3][9][10]} Doisneau said in 1992, "I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate."^[8][9]

The couple in Le baiser were Françoise Delbart, 20, and Jacques Carteaud, 23, both aspiring actors. In 2005 Françoise Bornet (née Delbart) stated that, "He told us we were charming, and asked if we could kiss again for the camera. We didn't mind. We were used to kissing. We were doing it all the time then, it was delicious. Monsieur Doisneau was adorable, very low key, very relaxed." They posed at the Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and finally the Hôtel de Ville. The photograph was published in 12 June 1950, issue of Life.^[10] The relationship between Delbart and Carteaud only lasted for nine months.^[9] Delbart continued her acting career, but Carteaud gave up acting to become a wine producer.^[8]

In 1950 Françoise Bornet was given an original print of the photograph, bearing Doisneau's signature and stamp, as part of the payment for her "work". In April 2005 she sold the print at auction for €155,000 to an unidentified Swiss collector via the Paris auctioneers Artcurial Briest-Poulain-Le Fur.^[3][8][11]

Personal life

In 1936 Doisneau married Pierrette Chaumaison whom he had met in 1934 when she was cycling through a village where he was on holiday. They had two daughters, Annette (b. 1942) and Francine (b. 1947). From 1979 until his death, Annette worked as his assistant.^[3]

His wife died in 1993 suffering from Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Doisneau died six months later in 1994, having had a triple heart bypass and suffering from acute pancreatitis. Annette said "We won in the courts (re: The Kiss), but my father was deeply shocked. He discovered a world of lies, and it hurt him. 'The Kiss' ruined the last years of his life. Add that to my mother suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and I think it's fair to say he died of sadness."^[3]

Doisneau was in many ways a shy and humble man, similar to his photography, still delivering his own work at the height of his fame. He chastised Francine for charging an "indecent" daily fee of £2,000 for his work on a beer advertising campaign – he wanted only the rate of an "artisan photographer".^[3]

Maybe if I were 20, success would change me. But now I'm a dinosaur of photography.

— Robert Doisneau^[3]

He lived in southern Paris (Gentilly, Val-de-Marne, Montrouge, and the 13th arrondissement) throughout his life. He is buried in the cemetery at Raizeux beside his wife.

Awards and commemoration

Collège Robert Doisneau, chemin de la Vieille Montagne de Clichy, Paris

Lycée Robert Doisneau de Corbeil-Essonnes (91)

Robert Doisneau was appointed a Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour in 1984.^[1]

He won several awards throughout his life, including:

• the Balzac Prize in 1986 (Honoré de Balzac)
• the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1983
• the Niépce Prize in 1956 (Nicéphore Niépce)
• the Kodak Prize in 1947

A short film, "Le Paris de Robert Doisneau", was made in 1973.

In 1991 The Royal Photographic Society awarded Doisneau an Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) which is given to distinguished persons having, from their position or attainments, an intimate connection with the science or fine art of photography of The Society.^[12]

In 1992 the French actress and producer Sabine Azéma made the film Bonjour Monsieur Doisneau.

The Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau in Gentilly, Val-de-Marne, is a photographic gallery named in his honour.

Several Ecole Primaire (primary schools) are named after him. 'Ecole élémentaire Robert Doisneau is at Véretz (Indre-et-Loire).^[13]

The photography of Doisneau has had a revival since his death in 1994. Many of his portraits and photographs of Paris from the end of World War II through the 1950s have been turned into calendars and postcards, and have become icons of French life.

The Allée Robert Doisneau is named in his honour at the 'Parc de Billancourt' on the site of the old Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt where he didn't work.

Exhibitions

Publications

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Doisneau.

• Official website
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Robert Doisneau
• Robert Doisneau's latest photo book 'Comme un barbare' Article du Journal de la Photographie
• Maison de la Photographie Robert-Doisneau
• BBC News report on the auction of Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville
• Bruce Silverstein Gallery represents the Estate of Robert Doisneau
• Robert Doisneau: Seconds Snatched from Eternity