In brief, Robert Doisneau

15 November 2024 – 04 May 2025

For the first time in Umbria some iconic photographs that tell the poetics of one of the greatest and most beloved photographers of the twentieth century, including the famous Kiss of the Hotel de Ville.

From 15 November 2024 to 4 May 2025, the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia, in the CAMERA OSCURA space dedicated to photography, set up within the exhibition itinerary of the Perugian museum, hosts for the first time in Umbria the exhibition In breve, Robert Doisneau, curated by Alessandra Mauro.

A minstrel who sang of everyday life, who preferred to shoot not the force of epic verse, but the subdued strength of the coarse yet witty stanza or of the folksong: that was Robert Doisneau, one of the most influential photographers of his day, who told the stories of post-war Paris like no other in a series of perfectly constructed, poetic images.

Born in Gentilly in 1912, Doisneau discovered photography at an early age: it was the perfect profession for anyone like him who wanted to be a non-conformist, a loner, an observer. He interpreted being a photographer above all in terms of exploring the city, moving around as though he was on a privileged stage where everything took place like an imaginative mise-en-scène. During his career, he worked with the world’s leading magazines (primarily Life), embodying reality, but above all working on the imagination of generations of admirers. He was the very emblem of the photographer who was always ready to capture the kinds of scenes of everyday happiness, of tenderness and of solidarity that, after the horrors of the Second World War, everyone yearned to rediscover in cities wiped out by hatred, so as to be able to experience them once again as welcoming, supportive places, ready to re-establish the social and moral fabric of Europe.

So many and memorable are the images that Doisneau left to posterity and that shape the visual horizon and exceptional image of a city that exists partly in reality and partly maybe only in his imagination, but where we would all certainly be happy to live.

It is to Doisneau, to his courteous, lucid genius and to his gentle, entertaining photography that we dedicate this exhibition, featuring a collection of some of his most famous shots, in a selection prepared in partnership with his heirs and with the Atelier Robert Doisneau in Paris.

Catalogue by Silvana Editoriale.

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