Robert Doisneau

Relevant to portrait idea.

Robert Doisneau photographed street life in black and white film. His work has a quality of candidness about it at the same time as it reminds me of film stills. The photographs look quite polished and perfect. I know for a fact that the photograph “The Kiss” (second from the bottom) was staged. It caused an uproar in its time when people found out. To begin with people thought it was a candid shot, a perfect capturing of a moment in time. When they found out it wasn’t they felt betrayed and decieved. Nowadays we’re more used to photographs being staged.

In this first photo of the accordian player, the people around him seem so perfectly placed, but at the same time it seems very casual and natural. I assume this isn’t staged like “The Kiss”, but it also seems like it could easily be a scene out of a film. I really like the composition and the format of the photo. There is so much to look at. All the details of the accordian player, the man in the background writing or drawing, the woman looking to the right out of the frame. It’s the kind of image that can keep you looking and asking questions for a long time. All of Doisneau’s images tell stories and some, like this one, tell many stories at the same time.

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