Robert Doisneau / un photographe et ses livres

Paris and its suburbs, industrial work, and portraits of artists and writers form part of the photographic territory examined through a survey of published books. This first volume in a series devoted to photographers and their books traces how an extensive body of images reached readers through hundreds of publications. The discussion begins with La Banlieue de Paris and considers both its early editions, whose limited initial success contrasts with their later appeal to collectors. It follows subsequent publishing projects and examines how selection, cropping and page design shaped the public image of the photographer. Familiar associations with Parisian humour are set alongside industrial photographs, colour work and other less familiar strands of the work. The closing reflection connects the persistence of images in books with the photographer's wish to resist the passage of time.