A treasure of 450,0000 negatives, nearly 400 images selected and offered to the public, 30 commented on a guide audio with the voice of Robert Doisneau, collages, work for advertising, also: the exhibition Moments given that devotes to the photographer the Maillol Museum in Paris*.
“An easy effect”
For many, its name remains associated with the photo that many tourists visiting the capital try duplicating: The kiss of the town hall. Alone this image in black and white (made at Rolleiflex In 1950) of a couple of anonymous kissing in front of the Paris town hall is enough for the name of Doisneau to be pronounced. Mythical! “This photo worries me a little: this success shows that it is a very, very easy thing, an easy effect,” said the photographer.
Inveterate storyteller, witness of his time, photographer journalist (press card 2.310), passer … Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), however, had not used to give in to ease to take his pictures. Perfectly composed, her Parisian romantic view was nothing hazardous but had been carefully orchestrated, with two models, students from the Simon course.
“I hesitate … in reality”
Doisneau who photographed childhood, the people of work, the people of little, the people of nothing, Paris, the suburbs, their bistros, the workshops of artists, the writers, the fashion too, in short, the life, had if not a lynx eye, the patience of the cat. “Oh there, if you saw me doing it!” I’m ashamed. First ashamed to stay there because … I seem to hesitate, but I hesitate … in reality. I don’t know what I’m waiting for … but I’m waiting. I’m waiting. I have the hope. And then… ”.
And then … the images exhumed at the Maillol museum by The Robert Doisneau workshop (animated by her daughters Annette and Francine) and the company Tempora (specialized in the realization of exhibitions) want to reflect this unique work.
For the first time in a Doisneau exhibition, here it is a question of the entire photographer’s journey, with shots from 1934 to 1992. And the desired will to offer Doisneau another image than that which usually sticks to the objective. According to the Maillol Museum, this is the largest retrospective dedicated to photographer for twenty years.
* From April 17 to October 12, 2025, 59-61, rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris.
“Mademoiselle Anita” (1951), one of the photos in the series Robert Doisneau devoted to bistros: “Please do not change anything, do not move anything, I will explain to you after” asked Do Doisneau to her model. “She had to realize the effect produced because, without even looking up, she kept this attitude of obstinate modesty which was so well …”.
“Méloman butchers” (1953). “I maintain that it is good to have a familiar bistro. Two, it’s even better, “said Doisneau who, for this photo taken in a district bistro in Mouffetard, in Paris. “Does that bother you if I take a picture of you?” Asseneau asked the singer. “No,” she replied. “So I discreetly put a little money in the saucer: it must have pleased him. And I have two three photos of her. In fact, the best photo of her, that I have is that day ”
“The Bobin factory, in Montrouge” (1945). Doisneau has photographed the workers a lot, the industry of a world in full mutation, so many photogenic sites at the heart of which the photographer’s objective is mainly confronts with the real of a social class which he will relentlessly express the difficulties.
“Le Jump” (1936). Robert Doisneau did not stop photographing childhood, all attracted that he is by the innocence of his models, their enthusiasm and happiness of the shared moment; By what they also remind him of his own childhood, he who was an orphan of a mother and father at the age of 8: “Disobeir seems to me a vital function and I must say that I did not deprive myself of it”.
“The hairdressers in the sun” (1966). A Parisian street scene, as Doisneau liked them so much. “We put ourselves in such a place, where it suits you. So … it’s … it’s a kind of false testimony … Ah yes … but we use real materials, that’s … that’s good. It gives solidity. But we believe it like that, ”said Robert Doisneau on this type of framing.
Self -portrait of Robert Doisneau, produced in Rolleiflex in 1947, “the apparatus we all wanted,” said the photographer who will end up using the black varnish which covers the surface by dint of manipulations.
