Paris Rediscovers its Poetic Eye: Robert Doisneau Returns Home
Brian Byrd | Hot Mirror | 2nd December 2025
Together with superb compositional skills, Doisneau used whimsy and irony to build his reputation. Having picturesque Paris as a backdrop also helped. Working as a freelance commercial photographer he and Cartier- Bresson pioneered photojournalism and a humanist approach to photography. His street image, The Kiss, made him famous, exemplified the contrast between bourgeois decorum and the romantic energy of youth and reflected his view that ordinary life deserves the most careful attention.