Mariages

Robert Doisneau was born in 1912 in the Paris suburb of Gentilly, where he grew up in the dull environment of a middle class family. At 15 he entered the Ecole Estienne where he studied engraving and lithography. After graduating he started designing labels and advertising for pharmaceutical products. In 1931 he became camera assistant to the sculptor André Vigneau. After that, he spent five years as a salaried employee at Renault factories and joined the Rapho Agency. Between two assignments, he kept wandering around Paris and its suburbs, fascinated by this “little theatre”. He met the poet Robert Giraud in 1947 and trough him became familiar with the night world, tramps, bars, les Halles… His first book, concocted with Blaise Cendrars, La Banlieue de Paris was published in 1949.