The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville by Robert Doisneau
What's up photography fans? Martin here from About photography channel, and today I want to talk about this particular picture “The Kiss, also known as the Kiss by Hotel de Ville.” I have briefly talked already about this picture in my Robert Doisneau - "A Champion of Humanist Photography” article. So If you are not familiar with Robert Doisneau, make sure to check my previous article about his life, and photography.
Today I want to talk about the story behind this picture, and more.
The picture was taken in 1950, by Robert Doisneau, with his Rolleiflex Camera in Paris, and was surrounded by little controversy. Even though it was taken in the 50s, the picture became famous only after poster companies started selling it on postcards, posters or calendars in 1980s. Now the controversy we talked about is that this picture, which was taken on the street was actually staged by models.
The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville by Robert Doisneau
To avoid legal issues, Doisneau preferred to use friends or models for his commissioned reportage, which is kind of ironic when you know what happened later. That is, however, something unthinkable in the street photography genre. To be fair, Doisneau was actually commissioned to take photos of kissing couples by “Life Magazine”, and later justified himself that he would not dare to photograph kissing people on the streets.
“A photographer who made a picture from a splendid moment, an accidental pose of someone or a beautiful scenery, is the finder of a treaser”
Now, I have also found a different story saying Doisneau saw his friends kissing and simply wanted to recreate the scene. As I said in the previous video since the picture was commissioned, who is better to take a photograph like this than a street photographer? The fact is that it was actually hidden to the public until the 1980s, when Jean and Denise Lavergne (Lavern) thought they recognized themselves, and when they confronted Doisneau, he did not deny that at first. Now, seizing the opportunity, the couple sued Doisneau for money, and that led him to reveal that those were actually hired models posing on the photograph.
To make things worse, those hired models sued him after that, but lost. This was a very unpleasant and shocking experience that as his daughter later said “Ruined the last years of his life.”
Robert Doisneau
More so, when we look at the composition, we can see a kissing couple, in the middle of movement where the couple were, is almost splitting the picture in half by the diagonal. The act of kissing represented in this romantic idea about Paris is what lot of people had and still has today. There is an empty space in front of the couple, and people walking behind the couple, implying that this is just a short moment in the busy and beautiful city of Paris.
For more information about Robert Doisneau feel free to check out my video about him. I hope you liked today's story behind this picture. If you did, feel free to give it a like.
If you want to find out more info check out this book "Robert Doisneau: A Photographer's Life": This biography delves into the life and work of the French photographer, who never photographed outside France's borders. It discusses his work with the Renault company, as well as his freelance works, offering a comprehensive look at his fascinating career.
