"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".
Robert Doisneau
While enjoying lunch in a restaurant in Kenmare, Co. Kerry recently, I noticed that there were several black and white photographs hanging on the walls. On closer examination I discovered that all, including possibly his most well known "The Kiss in Front of City Hall", were by the French street photographer, Robert Doisneau. Since the genesis of ECCG can be traced to an over dinner conversation in the same town, the coincidence wasn't lost on me so, Mon. Doisneau had to have a blog post dedicated to him on this site!
Robert Doisneau was born in Gentilly, Paris on 14/4/1912. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1920 and his father remarried two years later. At the age of seventeen, he qualified with a diploma as an engraver-lithographer. In 1929 he made his first pictures with a camera. Shortly after, he was hired as a draftsman, and soon became assistant in a newly created photo lab.
In 1931, he became assistant to the photographer André Vigneau whose influence was crucial to his career. Thereafter he met Pablo Picasso, Henri Cartier Bresson and many other personalities with whom he became friends. Upon his return from military service, he was hired as a photographer for Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt. He stayed there for five years until 1939. He then decided to become a photographer/freelance illustrator.
After the Liberation, he worked for some time before joining Alliance Photo agency Rapho permanently in 1946. In his status as a freelance photographer, he sold his pictures to magazines as diverse as Viewpoint, Life, Life working, Match, Look, Woman and Vogue. He participated in many international exhibitions and won many awards. In spite of his busy schedule, Robert Doisneau managed to do a lot of personal work and experienced a huge success over the last ten years of his life . Two films pay homage to him: "The Paris of Robert Doisneau" François Porcile in 1973 and "Bonjour Monsieur Doisneau" Sabine Azéma in 1992.
Visit his official site (in French, which can be translated in the browser) and see his work here.
