Robert Doisneau

With camera in hand, master photographer Robert Doisneau crisscrossed Paris to capture intimate moments with star musicians such as Eartha Kitt in a jazz club, Django Reinhardt at home, and Yehudi Menuhin backstage, or with locals at a neighborhood dance or jamming together in a brass band. He was commissioned for portraits of Georges Brassens, Juliette Greco, Charles Aznavour, or Claude Francois, and he immortalized a new generation of musicians in the 1980s including Rita Mitsouko, Les Negresses Vertes, Pierre Schaeffer, and Pierre Boulez. Doisneau's lifelong friend Maurice Baquet with his cello formed a photogenic duo on impromptu outings that gave rise to iconic images.

Doisneau's passion for the energy and joy inherent in the music world comes alive on the page in images that cover the musical spectrum, from classical and jazz to be-bop to the roots of modern rap and alternative rock. This book-curated by the photographer's granddaughter to accompany an exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris that will include music by Moriarty and scenography by Stephan Zimmerli- features more than one hundred photographs, many previously unpublished, that showcase the artist's mastery in editing, special effects, photomontage, collage, photo distortions, and splits.

About the Authors

Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) was a major photographer whose work appeared in Life, Paris Match, and Vogue. Major posthumous retrospectives of his work were held in Paris, Chicago, and New York. Flammarion has published numerous volumes devoted to his work including Robert Doisneau: Paris, Doisneau: Portraits of the Artists, Robert Doisneau: Palm Springs 1960, Robert Doisneau: Paris, Les Halles Market, The Best of Doisneau: Paris, and Robert Doisneau: The Vogue Years.

His granddaughter Clementine Deroudille, a radio and documentary producer, curated the accompanying exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris.