Robert Doisneau

Doisneau is known for his 1950 image Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (The Kiss by the City Hall), a photograph of a couple kissing on a busy Parisian street. He was appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour in 1984 by then French president, François Mitterrand.

Doisneau used irony in images of juxtapositions, mingling social classes, and eccentrics in contemporary Paris streets and cafes. He was influenced by the work of André Kertész, Eugène Atget, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Doisneau's work gives prominence to children's street culture; returning to the theme of children at play in the city, unfettered by parents.

Doisneau's father, a plumber, died on active service in World War I, when his son was about four. His mother died when he was seven. He then was raised by an aunt. At 13, he enrolled at the École Estienne. He graduated in 1929 with diplomas in engraving and lithography and took classes in figure drawing and still life. When he was 16, he took up amateur photography, starting by photographing cobble-stones before progressing to children and then adults. At the end of the 1920s, Doisneau found work as a draughtsman (lettering artist) at Atelier Ullmann (Ullmann Studio), a creative pharmaceutical graphics studio. He also acted as camera assistant in the studio and then progressed to a staff photographer.

Doisneau worked at the Rapho agency until the outbreak of World War II, where 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.

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, which became an internationally recognised symbol of young love in Paris. It was published on 12 June 1950, part of a photo-essay on couples kissing in Paris. The identity of the couple was unknown until 1992.

Doisneau married Pierrette Chaumaison in 1934. The couple had two daughters, Annette (b. 1942) and Francine (b. 1947). From 1979 until his death, Annette worked as his assistant. The two sisters were models for their father from an early age, and now work together to manage his archives and legacy. Doisneau's 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 was suffering from acute pancreatitis. Doisneau was thought to be a shy and humble man, similar to his photography. He disagreed with his daughter, 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". 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.

In 1931, he left both the studio and advertising, taking a job as an assistant with the modernist photographer, André Vigneau. In 1932, he sold his first photographic story to Excelsior magazine. Three years later, he began working as an industrial advertising photographer for the Renault car factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. Five years later, in 1939, he was dismissed due to repeated tardiness. He then freelanced in advertising, engraving, and postcard photography 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." The same year, he was later hired by the Rapho photographic agency and traveled throughout France in search of picture stories, eventually taking his first professional street photographs.

Some of Doisneau's most recognizable 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. He remained with them throughout his working life, despite receiving an invitation from Henri Cartier-Bresson to join Magnum Photos. He refused to photograph women whose heads had been shaved as punishment for sleeping with Germans. In 1948, he was contracted by Vogue to work as a fashion photographer. Le Groupe des XV was established in 1946 in Paris to promote photography as art and drawing attention to the preservation of French photographic heritage, and Doisneau joined in 1950 and participated alongside Rene-Jacques, Willy Ronis, and Pierre Jahan. After the group was disbanded, he joined Les 30 x 40, the Club Photographique de Paris. Doisneau continued to work through the 1970s, producing children's books, advertising photography, and celebrity portraits including Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, and Pablo Picasso. He also worked with writers and poets such as Blaise Cendrars and Jacques Prévert, and he credited Prevert with giving him the confidence to photograph everyday street scenes.

A short film, Le Paris de Robert Doisneau, was made in 1973. In 1992 the French actress and producer Sabine Azéma made the film Bonjour Monsieur Doisneau.