Robert Doisneau: Paris Through the Lens of a Humanistic Photographer

Robert Doisneau: A Retrospective in Paris

• 📸 A major retrospective at Paris's Hôtel de Ville museum celebrates the career of French photographer Robert Doisneau, featuring over 400 prints from the 1930s to the 1980s.
• 💡 The exhibition highlights his iconic "Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville" and other street photography, celebrity portraits, and lesser-seen works.

Documenting the Human Condition

• 🌍 Doisneau is presented as an eyewitness of a century, dedicated to documenting the human condition beyond just Parisian lovers.
• ⚒️ His work includes photo essays on social conflict, the harsh conditions of manual laborers, and the poverty of the streets, all captured with compassion.
• ✨ A signature of his social photography is the effort to always show his subjects with dignity.

Archival Treasures and Discoveries

• 🗄️ Over a 62-year career, Doisneau took 450,000 pictures, meticulously archived, with thousands of prints stored in folios.
• 🔍 The exhibition offers opportunities to discover new images, including a previously unpublished photo chosen as the poster for the retrospective.
• 🎨 His daughters have overseen his legacy for 30 years, carefully preserving the image of a humanistic photographer with a poetic and humorous eye.

Peter Bradshaw on Short Stories and Cinema

• ✍️ Film critic Peter Bradshaw discusses his short story collection, "The Body in the Mobile Library," highlighting the challenging compression and focus required for the form.
• 🎭 He found writing about lockdown experiences, particularly a story about an intimacy coordinator, to be liberating.
• 🎬 Bradshaw is developing his short story "Intimate" into a movie script with a friend.

Anticipation for the Cannes Film Festival

• 🎬 Bradshaw expresses excitement for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, anticipating films like Roan Campio's "Enzo" and Hlynur Pálmason's "The Love That Remains."
• 🌟 He notes the thrill of premiere screenings at Cannes, offering a sense of anticipation similar to Christmas morning.
• 🎭 He also mentions looking forward to a late addition by director Lynne Ramsay.

Musicals and "Titanique"

• 🎶 Peter Bradshaw is a fan of musicals on stage and considers "Titanique," a musical spoof of the James Cameron film, an "innocent pleasure."
• 🎭 The camp musical "Titanique" is currently playing in Paris.