Robert Doisneau

Perhaps best-known for his famous 1950 image of a couple kissing on the streets of Paris—Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall) – Robert Doisneau was a French photographer and early pioneer of photojournalism and street photography, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Doisneau captured unassuming images of street life around Paris, as well as working on prestigious advertising and photojournalism campaigns. “The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street,” he once said. Recruited as both a soldier and photographer for the French resistance at the outbreak of the Second World War, Doisneau also produced images of France in wartime.

Later in his career, Doisneau went on to photograph artistic celebrities such as Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau and Pable Picasso. He was awarded the Grand Prix National de la Photographie in 1983 and appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1984 for his contributions to French art and culture. Three years after his death on April 1, 1994 in Paris, a photo gallery in his name was opened in Gentilly, France.