The Paris of Famed Photographer Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau had a supreme sense of those absurd, unexpected situations and subtle twists that transform the meaning of a scene by delicate allusions that quite transcend anecdote. We cannot help but observe that the images created by Doisneau, like those of the comic writers, are more serious than they seem. "There is a kind of pathos about the bride drinking at the bar or the one on the seesaw at Gégène's", he noted, adding: "Humour is a feeling of shame for overt emotion. When the scene is too tender - or too cruel - you take refuge in humour to avoid that sense of embarrassment."