Robert Doisneau

Library Journal

In this first authorized biography of the French photographer Robert Doisneau (1912-94), many of his photographs are reproduced for the first time. Doisneau didn't like to travel; he found his images mostly in his own "backyard," the banlieu that defines the nearby outskirts and suburbs of Paris, especially Montrouge, where he lived with his wife of over 60 years (she died six months before him) until his death in April 1994. His two children assisted the author with this work. Photography was Doisneau's effort toward immortality, "the refusal to entirely disappear." Waiting for just the right moment, he recorded thousands of ordinary people doing ordinary and extraordinary things in the course of their day-to-day lives. Doisneau explained his motivations: "And it's better, isn't it, to shed some light on those people who are never in the limelight?" Hamilton (Doisneau: Retrospecive, St. Martin's Pr., 1993) traces modernist influences on Doisneau, notably the illustrated magazines, like Vu, Regards, and Match, that popularized "humanist" photography, and includes a chapter on technique. This important book, with its excellent reproductions, should be added to all photography collections.-Kathleen Collins, New York Transit Museum Archives, Brooklyn

Gretchen Garner

Quintessentially French, photographer Robert Doisneau (191294) spoke no other language and never photographed outside France's borders. Considering himself a latter-day Atget possessed of a far finer sense of humor, he roamed the streets of Paris and its working-class suburbs, looking for the amusing or simply human moments that he loved. His most famous picture, showing a young couple kissing on the street, contains the sum of his interests in pleasure, the city, and common human emotion. Communist in his sympathies, Doisneau was never overtly political in his work; indeed, he began his career working for the industrial giant, Renault. He soon went freelance and highly prized the freedom to go his own way. He never had or wanted a specialty, yet most of his best work is social documentary concentrating on the ordinary French. He also did fashion photography and portraits and even produced children's books, using his own daughters as models. Hamilton's lengthy, copiously illustrated, authorized biography affords an impressively complete look at the life of a warm, delightful mid-century photographer.