Saturday 21 March 2009

Robert Doisneau

I write blogs on French because I find it interesting, I like to speak French and the way to improve is by using French.Even if most of the blog is in English, I hope that you get some ideas on how to improve your French because the theme of the blog motivates you to learn a little bit more. I also write a German blog as well as other interests of mine, maths and photography. Today I thought I would combine the first and the last blogs and write about French photographers.

I have already written about probably the most French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) in my photography blog. This time I will write about a contempory of his, Robert Doisneau (1912-1994). We know photographers by their photos and Doisneau photographed Parisian streets. In particular he photographed children in the street. He said 'the marvels of daily life are exciting'. Isn't it great to have an exciting job but even better than that to be able to convey some of that excitement to others?

Probably his most famous photograph is ‘le baiser de l’hôtel de ville’. This is the same hôtel de ville that I referred to in ‘enjoy a trip to Paris’. The photograph caused controversy in the 1990s when it was discovered that the main subjects had been posed. Do an internet search and have a look at it. It is probably the first thing that comes up if you search on Doisneau. There are many photographers who look to capture a ‘moment’ but a bit of direction can save a lot of time. Now that you recognise the background, you too can walk along that pavement and try to discover the exact café where it was taken. Now there is a good excuse to go to France.

A bientôt

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