Robert Doisneau was born on the 14th April 1912 and lived until the 1st April 1994.
He was a French photographer and early pioneer of photojournalism. In the 1930’s he photographed the streets of Paris and was noted for his poetic approach to street photography.
As a young man he attended the Ecole Estienne in Paris to learn the craft in the book trade but he said that the streets of the working class neighbourhood of Gentilly provided his most important schooling.
His photo archives included approximately 450,000 photographs. He established a method of thematic sorting to simplify research.
He is best known for his famous 1950 image of a couple kissing on the streets of Paris – Le baiser de l’hotel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall).
He once said: “the marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street”.
One of my favourite photographs is one he took of Jacques Prevert, the French poet, sitting in the park with his dog.
