Robert Doisneau, pioneer in street fashion photography

Robert Doisneau was born in 1912 in Gentilly, France and he studied lithography but soon realised that his real passion was photography. He worked for Renault as an adverting photograper but was sacked for constantly being late so made money from postcards for tourists in Paris. After the war he was approched by French Vogue and worked as a fashion photographer for a while but his real passion was photojornalism and the streets of Paris and this is where he returned in 1951.

1951

Photojornalism and Street Photography was Robert Doisneau style of photography, he wanted to capture the surreal in everyday life, that moment of something amusing, the shear act of human nature.

Whilst photographing the streets of Paris as a freelance photographer he sold photographs to Life and other international magazine. He has done many exhibitions around the world in many galleries and together with Henri Cartier Bresson is considered the pioneer of Street Photography.

The Kiss is probably Doisneau most famous photograph taken in 1950 of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris. The couples indentity remained unknown until 1992. Jean and Denise Lavergne believed they were the couple in the photograph and Doisneau let then believe this as he did not want to shatter their dream. The subsequently took him to court because under French Law an individual owns the right to their own likeness. This then forced Doisneau to reveal he had posed the shot using Francoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud. He had seen the couple kissing and asked them to stage the shot as he would not have dared to just shoot them without them knowing.

And another cover for the french Vogue (1952) by Robert Doisneau