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In the heart of Old Nice, the Charles Nègre Museum of Photography is currently hosting an exhibition under the theme The Marvelous Everyday, showcasing a selection of 78 ancient or vintage prints by Robert Doisneau. These black and white photographs of Paris and its suburbs have become iconic images in the collective imagination. Doisneau, known for capturing not the spectacular, but rather the simple and unexpected moments of life, immortalizes fleeting instances, seeing something prodigious in the ephemeral. This magnificent retrospective, developed in collaboration with the Atelier Robert Doisneau, spans his career from the 1930s to the 1970s, featuring 110 images. It is divided into two parts: Paris and its suburbs, and Palm Springs, 1960, running until January 28, 2024.
Sonia Duchatel, a cultural mediator, shared, “This is the first time we are exhibiting Doisneau’s works in Nice, and he is an essential artist. The museum director has chosen an eclectic mix of black and white and color photos in line with the main theme. We collaborated with the Doisneau Workshop and the photographer’s two daughters, who gave us free rein in the scenography. Regarding visitors, we welcome school classes every day. These are photographs that speak to everyone. Since the first day, the exhibition has been a huge success, as the public’s feedback has been excellent.”
Bernard Pivot, in one of his shows, addressed Doisneau as a “humanist photographer,” to which Doisneau, surprised, laughed and appreciated the tribute. He is now recognized as one of the representatives of the Humanist school, alongside Ronis, Boubat and Izis.
Born in 1912 in Gentilly, Doisneau obtained a diploma in lithographic engraving and began his career by designing pharmaceutical labels. In 1931, he began learning the basics of photography working for André Vigneau and sold his first reportage to the daily newspaper L’Excelsior. He then became an industrial photographer at Renault factories, capturing images of workers and car manufacturing, an environment he despised. During World War II, Doisneau worked as an independent photographer and illustrator, undertaking numerous assignments. From 1946 until his death, he collaborated with the Rapho Agency and regularly worked with the American press.
In 1948, Doisneau’s work was exhibited alongside Brassaï, Ronis, and Izis at the Photoleague Gallery in New York. In 1951, he was featured at the MOMA in New York in Five French Photographers with Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Izis and Ronis. In 1954, the Art Institute of Chicago held his first solo exhibition, though only his photographs could travel due to financial constraints. He was awarded the Kodak Prize in 1947 and the Niépce Prize in 1956. The 1960s marked a period of travel and reportage in the United States, Canada and the USSR.
However, Doisneau’s primary inspiration came from Paris and its suburbs, with his black and white photos imbued with tenderness and humor. His first photograph, titled “Les pavés” (1929), shows his initial focus on inanimate subjects due to shyness. He roamed Paris and its suburbs, capturing the unexpected and documenting the everyday life of street dwellers, including artisans, entertainers, children, students, as well as places like bistros, carousels, trains and tenants’ houses. In collaboration with Blaise Cendrars, who was the only one interested in his photographs at the time, he created an album on the suburbs of Paris (1949). In 1950, he received a commission from the American magazine Life on the theme of love in springtime in Paris. The resulting photographs, including “Le baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville,” “Le baiser du Pont-Neuf” and “Les Amoureux aux poireaux,” were immediately published. It wasn’t until the 1980s that he was approached to print “Le baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville” as a poster, which met with immense success.
Subsequent exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Palace of Fine Arts in Beijing, Tokyo, Rome, the Jardin des Plantes, and numerous other awards followed, including the Grand National Prize for Photography in 1983 and the Balzac Prize in 1986. He passed away in April 1994, leaving behind a legacy of approximately 450,000 negatives.
On the ground floor of the Charles Nègre Museum, there are unique, poetic black and white photos narrating the everyday lives of Parisians, reviving moments captured through the awe-struck gaze of the young Doisneau. A gallery of images immediately transports visitors into a world where the oxymoron “The Marvelous Everyday” becomes fully realized. Featured photos include “Le saut” (1936) of a mischievously smiling boy, “Les frères, rue du Dr Lecène” (1934) displaying acrobatics, “Le cadran scolaire” (1956) of students in class, “Les enfants de la place Hebert” (1957), and many others.
“The world I tried to show was one where I would have felt good, where people would be kind, where I would find the tenderness I wished to receive. My photos were like proof that this world could exist,” Doisneau stated in a 1990 interview with Frank Horvat.
From the 1960s onwards, Doisneau gathered what he called his “photographic tinkering,” reflecting his taste for free use of photography and his innovative spirit. Two remarkable relief montages, “La maison des locataires” (1956) for the exhibition “Six Photographers and Paris” at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and “Le pont des Arts” (1962) for an exhibition at the town hall of Pantin, were recreated identically in 2006. Doisneau paid attention to the minor details of life, capturing those moments that might otherwise go unnoticed, yet for him, represented the essence of the world. The photographs “La famille du blanchisseur” (1949), “Petits enfants au lait” (1934), “Dimanche matin, Arcueil Cachan” (1945), and “Dans le train de Juvisy” (1947) captivate viewers with their simplicity and depth.
On the first floor, the exhibit transitions to “Palm Springs, 1960.” Doisneau crossed the Atlantic for the first time in 1960 to complete a report for the American magazine Fortune on the construction of golf courses in Palm Springs, a desert refuge for wealthy American retirees. What he discovered there led him to go beyond the initial theme, using color film for the first time to capture an artificially pastel-colored world.
The retrospective also features a remarkable documentary titled The Rebel of the Marvelous by Clémentine Deroudille, Doisneau’s granddaughter. Based on previously unseen archives, it presents a portrait of the man and the artist, who considered photography a craft. The film, released in 2016, is divided into chapters illustrated by Emmanuel Guibert and includes testimonials from his daughters Annette and Francine, who manage his artistic heritage, as well as close friends of the photographer, such as Sabine Weiss, Sabine Azéma, Philippe Delerm, Daniel Pennac and François Morel, discussing both the man and the artist who photographed figures like Picasso and Michèle Morgan. The film reveals that Jacques Prévert was one of his closest friends and that with Robert Giraud, they would rise at four in the morning to go to the Halles market. Doisneau’s photographs have traveled worldwide, from New York to Tokyo, where his fame is considerable.