Robert Doisneau

The most tender kiss in the history of photography? Impossible to say for certain. But surely a place on the podium belongs to the image of the young couple who, oblivious to the crowd of passersby and the traffic, kiss in Place de l’Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

The author of that world-famous image is Robert Doisneau, the great master of photography to whom the city of Modena is dedicating a major retrospective.

The exhibition traces the creative journey of the great French artist through around 130 black-and-white photographs, all drawn from the collection of the Atelier itself.

Among the works selected for the exhibition is Le baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville, considered one of the most iconic author photographs of all time.

Together with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau is regarded as one of the founding fathers of French humanist photography and street photojournalism. His lens captures the everyday lives of the men and women who populate Paris and its suburbs, filled with emotion in their gestures and the situations they experience.

This exhibition embraces his body of work as a whole, without chronological or genre limitations, lingering on factories, bistrot counters, concierge desks, ceremonies, jazz clubs, schools, and everyday street scenes.