Paris, until February 17, 2007
“It is not easy to catch a pedestrian, it is like a pigeon. It jumps.”
Doisneau, his humour is permanent in the exhibition which the town hall
of Paris devotes to him. The visitor encases the step with most popular
French photographers and lets himself guide by the sound of his voice,
for a hopping and merry posthumous walk. What's up in the kingdom of
Doisneau? The question arises as of the entry of the exhibition of this
artist from which certain images were drawn to thousands from
specimens. Wink with this celebrity, a pulling signed by the artist of
the famous stereotype, the Kiss of the Town hall, was offered,
yesterday, with the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, by Doisneau's
daughters, Annette and Francine. “This time, we wanted to show another
thing, explains Annette Doisneau. Another thing that kisses, bars and
kids. Our father covered all the century. All amused it. We propose one
strolls with him. A roof for him, which forever desired being
accompanied in these walks. And for the occasion, we left the things
which were never shown. ” These news to see as curiosities raise of
what the artist called its “do-it-yourself”, of the assemblies carried
out in the secrecy of the workshop which show how the man played with
his images. For the House of the tenants, Doisneau takes the frontage
of a stripped plaster Parisian building and y sticks photographs
representing the common daily life to the place of the windows. The
caretaker is on the step of the door, the waiting room of the doctor is
full with the first, the lesson of music resounds with the second, the
workman smokes under the roofs, beside the dressmaker who has just had
a baby. Paris intimates of Doisneau way doll's house conceived in 1965
for an exhibition to the museum of decorative arts. In 1968, it exposes
to the national Library the Markets of Paris, an assembly of 36
elements to tell the life of the belly of the capital. In 1978, it has
fun to cut out in cubes the Bridge of arts, another subject of
predilection of this fisherman of images and homage of the artist to
the anonymous chalk painters. It presents same manner “cursed space” of
the place of the Harmony, the famous pedestrian passage which, notes
it, is “on the site where two centuries ago was the guillotine”. The
pedestrians run there and the cars howl, already… Malicious Doisneau
still tells that in “perfect sadist” it chose the terrace of the
ministry for the Navy like observatory. The photographer with work:
posted at the good place, it tallies simply without seeking the effect,
leaving with others the brilliance. Its humanity and its humour will
just undertake to fade on the image being done. The receipt is tested,
registered with the inheritance of photography and written in the
collective memory, does not say one today “to photograph in Doisneau”.
The man however never was among those which give lessons. “Disobedience
and curiosity are the two udders of this trade”, hears one just with
the flight by visiting the exhibition. Nostalgia is not its war-horse,
with due respect to those which would like to arrange it in this
category. A photograph of the quays of the Seine of 1982, full of
Parisian in shirt, lengthened on towels, murmurs us with the ear which
it would certainly have adored to stroll in Paris beach. This walk in
the universe of the photographer, more suggestive than exhaustive, must
compose with the space of the Midsummer's Day room to the Town hall. It
is not the best place to expose photographs. Scenography is freed from
any chronology for better pointing the bulimia of the character by
mixing dates and topics through 165 photographs and of the assemblies.
The icons are there but exactly on the same plan as the other images.
All were withdrawn for this exhibition and the numerical one makes even
its appearance by the means of immense pulling. The daughters of
Doisneau do not hesitate to hustle the paternal figure for better
revealing the man behind the photographer.
F r a n ç o i s e D a r g e n t
