Book Review: Robert Doisneau: Paris

This seminal volume – produced in close collaboration with his estate – is the official, most comprehensive reference of Robert Doisneau’s photographs of Paris. Robert Doisneau’s enchanting black-and-white photographs immortalise the magic of Paris, with its combination of dreamy nostalgia and teeming modernity.

Profoundly fascinated by his city, the photographer possessed an uncanny ability to capture poetry in ordinary moments – from the jubilation of the Liberation in 1944, to a gaggle of schoolchildren crossing the street, or the famous kiss in front of the Hôtel de Ville to cyclists beneath the Eiffel Tower – and it was this eye for humour and poignancy that infused his work with enduring popular appeal.

The 560 photographs in this definitive volume – curated by his daughters Annette Doisneau and Francine Deroudille – are enhanced by quotations from Doisneau’s personal notebooks.

Robert Doisneau: Paris
Annette Doisneau & Francine Deroudille
£35
Flammarion

From France Today magazine