Robert Doisneau is one of the most renowned french photographer around the world. I have decided to talk about him because it’s been a long time that I am fascinated about his work. He has managed to capture the poetry that is hidden in the quotidian life. Also, you can imagine plenty of little stories behind his pictures.
He was walking on his favorite place, Paris, and he was picking up moments of life with his camera. He has always taken a particular attention to people, their eyes, their smiles. His work is fundamentally humanist.
Let’s borrow his words :
"I have never stopped having fun ; I have created my own little theater."
Doisneau was born in Gentilly in 1912. At thirteen, he succeeded in join the Ecole Estienne, the Higher School of Graphic Arts and Trades, where he chose the graphic engraving workshop. He obtained his diploma of engraver in 1929, but he has quickly left his first job because of boredom.
Later, he joined the Ullman graphic art studio as an advertising photographer. Between two missions, he was wandering in the streets of Paris and its suburbs with his camera. In 1932, he sold his first photographic report, which is published in the Excelsior newspaper.
In 1934, car manufacturer Renault hired him as an industrial photographer. During five years, he was photographing the workshops, the workers, the assembly lines... Finally, he was fired for repeatedly arriving late. He became an independent photographer in Rapho agency.
Robert Doisneau was certainly one of the greatest photographer of the 20th century. Throughout his city encounters, he has managed to capture humor and emotion in ordinary situations. Like he said :
"Patience is not too high a price to pay for the joy of an instant’s stunned witness for a harmony one could never have predicted."
