Jean-Claude Gautrand

At once cosmopolitan metropolis and venue for a pensive stroll, Moloch and emblem of the modern, Paris has been a source of inspiration for countless artists and writers down the ages. But not least it is the home and constant muse of a relatively young art: photography. Since the earliest days of the daguerreotype right up to our time, renowned photographers such as Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Jeanloup Sieff have lived and worked in the city of lights. Over the years a love affair developed between Paris and photography, giving rise to a remarkable record of the metropolis and a telling history of a new art form. This volume takes the reader on numerous walks, camera in hand, through the streets of Paris. Atmospheric black-and-white photos, shot by great photographers over two centuries, reveal the dramatic and the tranquil, the historic and the everyday—in the capital’s parks and gardens, boulevards and backstreets, passages and arcades, bistros and nightclubs.

This is the vivid history of the capital of love and photography. After Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York, here comes the 4th volume in our "Portrait of a City" series: "L'air de Paris". A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niepce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. "Paris, Portrait of a City" leads us through what Goethe described as 'universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street'. This history is recounted in photographs, all the way from Daguerre's incunabula to the most recent images. In fact, Paris can claim to be the only city in the world whose archives house an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations. This huge panorama of nearly 600 pages and as many photographs makes Paris, Portrait of a City unique. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Thanks to images captured by the most illustrious photographers - Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertesz, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more - but also by many unknown amateurs, these pages show the essential workings of a human drama acted out on the stage of history. These visions attempt to bottle just a little of that 'Parisian air', something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages. Presenting an exciting patchwork of images from past and present, "Paris, Portrait of a City" is a huge and unique photographic study that, in a way, is the true family album of all Parisians. It is to them, and to all lovers of this capital city, that this vibrant, loving and tender testimony is dedicated.

Les petits miracles de la vie. This title deals with one of the great chroniclers of Parisian life in the 20th century. Produced in close cooperation with Willy Ronis and featuring images from his archives, this book traces the career of one of France's most remarkable photographers, to whom, along with Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, and Brassai, we owe our romantic vision of France. In Ronis' photos of Paris, the city is inseparable from the working class men, women, and children who inhabit its streets and cafes. He once described his approach to photography in five words: "patience, thinking, chance, form, and time." Working with available light, Ronis sought to capture the fleeting moments of everyday life, and his body of work documents, with timeless beauty and grace, the feel of French life in the 20th century.

L'air de Paris. This is the vivid history of the capital of love and photography. A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niepce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. "Paris, Portrait of a City" recounts the history of the city in photographs ranging from Daguerre's early incunabula to the most recent images - a span of over a century and a half of transformations. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Images captured by the most illustrious photographers - Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertesz, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more - but also by many unknown photographers, attempt to bottle just a little of that "Parisian air," something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages.

As sensitive to human suffering as to the simple pleasures of life, Robert Doisneau is one of the most celebrated exponents of the Photographie humanistethat swept through the 1950s. Cherished in particular for his soulful portraits of Paris, Doisneau demonstrated a unique ability to find – and perfectly frame –charismatic characters, entertaining episodes and fleeting moments of humor and affection. A summation of a spectacular career, this is the most extensive Doisneau collection ever published, including all his best loved images alongside many lesser-known compositions which equally rejoice in “the ordinary gestures of ordinary people in ordinary situations.” The many quotations from the photographer throughout the volume immerse the reader in Doisneau’s thoughts and give verbal expression to the sensitivity, warmth, and wit which characterize his pictures. Through more than 400 images, we are transported to the grim suburbs of Doisneau’s youth; through the world of manual labor whose nobility he so admired; and to the studios of the many groundbreaking artists that Doisneau captured in moments of reflection and creativity. A number of color shots of Palm Springs and the transformed suburbs of Doisneau’s childhood reveal a different, more critical, eye to the master photographer. For this new monograph on all aspects of the life and oeuvre of Robert Doisneau, his long-time friend and TASCHEN author Jean Claude Gautrand had unlimited access to the extensive photo archive Atelier Robert Doisneau. The preface is by Doisneau’s daughters Francine Deroudille and Annette Doisneau. The author: Jean Claude Gautrand, born in 1932, is one of France’s most distinguished experts on photography. An active photographer since 1960, he has also made a name for himself as a historian, journalist and critic, with numerous publications. He is the author of the TASCHEN books Paris mon amour (1999), Robert Doisneau (2003), Brassaï (2004), Willy Ronis (2005) and Paris, Portrait of a City(2011).

Paris, Je T Aime A photographic tribute to a capital of romance Described by Goethe as the universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, Paris is as rich in its two millennia of history as it is in its beauty, its romance, and its art. It s the city of Marcel Proust and Coco Chanel, of Edith Piaf and Jean-Paul Sartre, of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, of Left Bank cool and the twinkling lights of the Tour Eiffel by night. It was also on the banks of the Seine that Niépce and Daguerre officially gave birth to the new art of photography, and in this evocative tapestry of images, we celebrate the city s remarkable photographic, as well as cultural, architectural, and civic history. Some 500 pictures bring together past and present, the monumental and the everyday, faces and vistas, as well as the talents of such illustrious photographers as Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson. Text in English, French, and German

This is the vivid history of the capital of love and photography. After Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York, here comes the 4th volume in our "Portrait of a City" series: "L'air de Paris". A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niepce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. "Paris, Portrait of a City" leads us through what Goethe described as 'universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street'. This history is recounted in photographs, all the way from Daguerre's incunabula to the most recent images. In fact, Paris can claim to be the only city in the world whose archives house an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations. This huge panorama of nearly 600 pages and as many photographs makes Paris, Portrait of a City unique. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Thanks to images captured by the most illustrious photographers - Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertesz, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more - but also by many unknown amateurs, these pages show the essential workings of a human drama acted out on the stage of history. These visions attempt to bottle just a little of that 'Parisian air', something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages. Presenting an exciting patchwork of images from past and present, "Paris, Portrait of a City" is a huge and unique photographic study that, in a way, is the true family album of all Parisians. It is to them, and to all lovers of this capital city, that this vibrant, loving and tender testimony is dedicated.

This is the vivid history of the capital of love and photography. After Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York, here comes the 4th volume in our "Portrait of a City" series: "L'air de Paris". A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niepce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. "Paris, Portrait of a City" leads us through what Goethe described as 'universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street'. This history is recounted in photographs, all the way from Daguerre's incunabula to the most recent images. In fact, Paris can claim to be the only city in the world whose archives house an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations. This huge panorama of nearly 600 pages and as many photographs makes Paris, Portrait of a City unique. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Thanks to images captured by the most illustrious photographers - Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassai, Kertesz, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more - but also by many unknown amateurs, these pages show the essential workings of a human drama acted out on the stage of history. These visions attempt to bottle just a little of that 'Parisian air', something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages. Presenting an exciting patchwork of images from past and present, "Paris, Portrait of a City" is a huge and unique photographic study that, in a way, is the true family album of all Parisians. It is to them, and to all lovers of this capital city, that this vibrant, loving and tender testimony is dedicated.