Robert Doisneau La Résistance to legend
AP takes a look at the life of the photographer behind that kiss
When Robert Doisneau died in April 1994, he left behind some 450,000 negatives. An impressive figure, considering photography was not his first profession. Doisneau was born in Gentilly, France, in April 1912, and was raised by his aunt; his father died in WWI and his mother died when he was seven. He spent his youth ‘ behind the macramé curtains of a conventional middle-class family’. His aunt was keen to educate him in music and the arts, and was not impressed when he expressed an interest in photography. As a result, Doisneau learnt engraving and lithography at the Estienne School in Paris, graduating in 1929. Having completed his studies, his attention returned to his first love: photography. While working for the advertising department of a pharmaceutical company, he began roaming the streets shooting textures, cobblestones and patterns. Rumour has it he chose these subjects because of a natural shyness, and it was some time before he began photographing people. In 1931, he became camera assistant to André Vigneau, and a year later had his first picture published in the newspaper Excelsior. At the age of 22, Doisneau began work as an advertising photographer at a Renault factory in Billancourt, Paris, which is where he received most of his formal training. Four years later, though, he lost his job due to repeated lateness, which gave him the ideal excuse to become an independent photographer. With the outbreak of World War II, he fought first with the army and then with the French Resistance, reportedly using his skills as an engraver to forge passports and ID papers. During the Liberation period Doisneau captured many images of Paris, but his most celebrated work was made after this period. Arguably the most famous is Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville (Kiss by the Town Hall), shown here. While it might look like an artfully composed shot of a young couple in love, according to Doisneau’s daughter Francine Deroudille, it was staged. ‘My father’s agent had pitched a series on the lovers of Paris to American publications, and Life magazine commissioned it,’ she explained during an interview for the BBC in 2017. To avoid legal issues, he asked two actor friends to walk around Paris, interacting as naturally as possible. While the shot wasn’t posed as such, the scene was set for a memorable picture.