Doisneau Paris [Paperback]

Brigitte Ollier (Author), Robert Doisneau (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

After the remarkable success of Atget Paris, a work 'Newsweek' called 'one of the great works of art of the last centuries', and the publication in 1994 of Marville Paris, comes the richly evocative Doisneau Paris, completing the Paris Trilogy.

With this third and final volume the modern period in Paris is seen through the eyes of one of this century's most celebrated and respected photographers. This is not though just a book about Paris. It is more significantly the most important book yet to appear on the photography of Robert Doisneau.

Doisneau is the photographer of Paris 'par excellence' and this book will have a lasting appeal for demonstrating the power of Doisneau's images like never before.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A little over three years ago, Gingko Press published Atget Paris, a beautiful collection of 840 b&w photos taken by Eugene Atget in the years before his death in 1927. Now Doisneau Paris, by Brigitte Ollier, takes up where that volume left off. Robert Doisneau, who died in 1994, began taking photos of the city in the 1930s, but the bulk of the 650 b&w photographs in this collection are from the 1940s, '50s and '60s. From the deprivations of war (a girl's first communion in a basement shelter) to the demolition of progress (Doisneau's lyrical portraits of Les Halles over the decades ends with its demolition and the opening of the egregious Forum des Halles). This is a truly marvelous collection, portraying people going about their daily business in a city that is never mundane.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It is nice to think that the marvelous Atget Paris (1993) demanded this volume (which, like it, is the size of a Parisian paving stone) to dispel its loneliness. Doisneau's Parisian views could well do that, for they are as full of humanity as Atget's are empty of it. People figure in Atget's documentary scenes only accidentally, but virtually every one of Doisneau's pictures features people walking, running, working, playing, dancing, eating, drinking, and even facing down the photographer with eyes mock-sternly glaring over their eyeglass frames. Quite absent, however, are tragedy and pain; though the setting be bleak, as in the shots of Paris' suburbs during and just after the war, the faces we see are usually smiling. Doisneau's work commenced a few years after Atget's death (1927), and the bulk of the images here come from the 1940s through the 1960s. Paris changed immensely during this time; indeed, one chapter demonstrates change in chronologically successive images of the old produce market of Les Halles, razed in 1971. No matter the changes, to Doisneau's eye Paris is where life is truly lived, quite often delightfully. Ray Olson

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Gingko Pr Inc; 1st edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3927258342
• ISBN-13: 978-3927258341
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,125,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living in the Shadow of Henri Cartier-Bresson, July 17, 2003

By 

Terrance M. Carroll (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doisneau Paris (Paperback)

Robert Doisneau is best known for his photo of a couple kissing on a Paris street. (Haven't seen it? You don't buy greeting cards or calendars, do you?)

Doisneau was one of the very best "street photographers" ever, who documented Paris life from the 1940s to the 1970s in classic black-and-white. His ability to capture candid moments was first rate. His photos maintained a whimsical mood, for the most part, which probably kept him from being as famous as his contemporary Henri Cartier-Bresson. Personally, I think he was better than Cartier-Bresson, in terms of timing, composition, and consistency. But Cartier-Bresson emphasized subjects with more gravity, so his pictures get the nod of history, and deservedly so. (See Cartier-Bresson's monumental retrospective "The Man, The Image, & the World" -- Thames & Hudson 2003) But Doisneau documented the ordinary, with a sense of gentle irony, so his imagery gets relegated to greeting cards.

As a portrait of Paris, as a representation of Doiseau's work, and as a lesson in photographic timing and composition, this book is better than you could ask for. The opening essay by Brigitte Ollier is overly emotional (overly French?), though informative. The pictures, however, speak for themselves, and I'd bet Ollier would be the first to say so.

The price of this book is a bargain, with 665 pages of some of the best photographs by a photographer who deserves more than greeting card consideration. Truth be told (and as a HUGE fan of Cartier-Bresson), I didn't know how absolutely incredible Doisneau was until I got this book. So you should get it, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super book -- every Rollei owner should have it, January 18, 2010

By 

Robert Burnham (Hales Corners, Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doisneau Paris (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for anyone who loves street photography. And if you own a Rolleiflex camera, this book has your name on it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does not exist, January 18, 2008

By 

JBo "At Large" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doisneau, Paris (Calendar)

I had this item 3 years ago: great calendar. However, for the past 2 years Amazon has listed it and failed to deliver. There seems to be an issue with Amazon listing items that they cannot obtain.