Woman Bending Over
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Concierges, Rue du Dragon, Paris
Tatooed Man Smoking on Bed
Industrial Plant at Saint-Gobain, Le Havre, France
Le Bouillon de la Rue Tiquetonne
My First Teacher, Villejuif, France
Bride and Groom on Swing
Chez Gegene, Quai de Polangis, Joinville-le-Pont (La Mariée)
Women with the Same Hat
The Children's Parade
Marriage in Latoville, near St. Céré
Marc and Christiane Chevalier in the Paris Metro
Banquiste, Place de la Bastille
Smoky Scene in a Paris Bar
The Wedding Cart
Man and Phonograph at the Flea Market (Marché aux puces du Kremlin Bicêtre)
Jacques Prévert in a Telephone Booth
Marc and Christiane Chevalier in the Paris Metro
Motorcyclists, Blvd. Brune, Porte de Orlean, Paris
Portrait of Anne-Marie Edvina
Christiane Chevalier Eating Cotton Candy at Ivresse, Foire du Trone
Christiane Chevalier at Ivresse, Foire du Trone
Christiane Chevalier at Ivresse, Foire du Trone
Pierre Neveu and Author Aldous Huxley, on the Terrace of Flore Café, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, Drinking Wine
Danièle Delorme, French Model and Actress
Portrait of Anne-Marie Edvina
Wartime Sabotage on Ship in the Port of Toulon
Saint-Martin, Maker of Wire Figurines
Robert Doisneau is one the most well known French photographers. He focused on people photography, making images of common people as he wandered through the streets of Paris and its suburbs.
Born on April 14, 1912 in Gentilly, a suburb of Paris, he stumbled in his early studies and had to enter a craft school at the age of 13 instead of becoming an engineer, as his family had wanted. The school gave a Doisneau a very limited art training, which he complemented with evening classes in life drawing and still life. Doisneau's interest in photography started in 1929, and he started as a professional in 1934. He worked for Renault until he was fired in 1939.
In 1939, after meeting with Charles Rado (founder of the photography agency Rapho), he decided to become an independant photojournalist, but after only a few assignments the French army called him up, where he served until 1940. He then worked for the Resistance movement until the end of the war. At the same time, he produced postcards to earn a little money.
In 1947, he won a prize in a contest sponsored by Kodak.
In 1949, Doisneau signed a contract with Vogue, where he worked until 1952. In 1952, he started to work as a freelance photographer. He died in Paris in April 1994.
Doisneau once remarked: "A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there--even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity."
Major fine art photography retrospectives for Doisneau have been mounted at the Bibliothèque National in Paris, the Art Institute of Chicago and George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. Over 40 books have been published on his work.
A photograph by him holds the world auction record for a 20th-century French photographer at about $240,000.
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