This is a collection of photos and commentary by Robert Doisneau taken between 1935 and 1990 of life in Paris. The joy that he had from Paris comes through in many of these photos. He walked the streets for many years, seeing his city with fresh eyes.
Though I've never been to Paris, his photos gave me a feeling of nostalgia for a city now gone. A city of human scale, a city where working people could afford to live, and where they could not just live, but live. He doesn't seem to have romanticized mid-century Paris: he depicts the shabbiness and general squalor of lower class neighborhoods. But even amidst the poverty and privation of depression-era and post-war Paris there is a sense of joy and spirit.
The final sections of the book are from his brief time with Vogue, and a final sorrowful look at the new Paris of unlivable housing projects and steel and glass skyscrapers. Thankfully, what remains in the mind's eye are the workmen, artists, cafe owners and customers, Les Halles sellers and buyers, and the shops on Ile St. Louis.
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