Book Description
"My photographs are completely subjective. They show the world as I would like it to be at all times. And, for me, this world exists ... because I create photographic proof of it." Robert Doisneau became France’s most popular photographer. Most people are familiar with his most famous pictures: the lovers kissing in the town square, or Picasso with croissants for fingers, or the couple looking at an antique dealer’s shopwindow. In his shots of everyday scenes Doisneau pays affectionate homage to life in the small towns and suburbs of France. Three Seconds of Eternity, first published in 1979, remains the classic Doisneau book, now available again. The photographer himself not only selected the pictures, but also wrote a celebrated essay that is a vivid, amusing account of his career as a photographer, his encounter with novelist Blaise Cendrars, and the "average folk" he portrayed with gentle humor and compassion.

ANNOTATION

This handsome and affordable paperback features the best known of Doisneau's most affecting and memorable photographs from the '40s and '50s, with such subjects as a small rural wedding, a blind street musician, a young couple's reflection in a storefront window, and much more.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Robert Doisneau, arguably one of the world's best-loved photographers, has created some of the most memorable and affecting images the world has ever seen. Who hasn't been moved by the simple beauty of "The Kiss," or amused by Picasso playfully exhibiting his croissant fingers at the breakfast table? Doisneau's unique ability to capture life's most delicate and pure emotions renders his photographs universal and timeless. This classic volume features the best-known Doisneau's works from the forties and fifties, selected by the photographer himself. Accompanying those works is a revealign and beautifully written autobiographical essay that explores Doisneau's evolutions as an artist -- from his beginnings as an etcher, through the many phases of his career in advertising, industrial design, and the fashion world. Most importantly, Doisneau offers a moving explanation of his commitment to profiling the common man.

Whether he was wandering the streets of Paris or roaming the French countryside, Doisneau recognized the sublime within the unspectacular. Children mischievously at play, a small rural wedding, a blind street musician, a young couple's reflection in a storefront window -- these are the subjects of Doisneau's most heartfelt photographs. They are imbued with a poetic sensibility that belies their content, and which allows us to share in the joy and sadness they depict -- moments at once brief and eternal.

SYNOPSIS