Robert DOISNEAU, is a French humanist photographer, born April 14, 1912 in Gentilly and died April 1, 1994 in Montrouge. He is, alongside Willy RONIS, Édouard BOUBAT, Izis, Émile SAVITRY and Albert MONIER one of the main representatives of the current of French humanist photography and one of the most popular photographers of the 20th century. Robert DOISNEAU grew up in a petty-bourgeois universe that he hated. Trained at the Ecole Estienne, he obtained a diploma in engraver lithographer and became a letter designer at Atelier Ullman, specializing in pharmaceutical advertising. In 1931, he was hired by the sculptor André VIGNEAU as operator. Between two missions, he walks the streets of Paris and the suburbs, making these places his studio. Throughout his life, Robert DOISNEAU was fascinated by the suburbs. After completing his military service in the Vosges, he found Lucien CHAUFFARD, whom he had met at Atelier Ullman, in the photo service of the Renault factories in Boulogne Billancourt. For 5 years, he photographed workshops, crowds of workers, assembly lines. That same year, Robert DOISNEAU met Charles RADO, founder of the Rapho agency, who offered him a contract as a freelance photographer. The realization of his first order is interrupted by the declaration of war. Mobilized in the east during the start of the war, he was reformed in February 1940 and returned to Paris. The Rapho Agency was relaunched in 1946 by Raymond GROSSET, DOISNEAU then takes back his position as a freelance photographer. Thanks to GROSSET, DOISNEAU signs a contract with Vogue to take fashion photos but he is uncomfortable in this environment, he prefers to photograph the nightlife world with Robert GIRAUD, whom he met in 1947. Together, they ran a four-handed column for "Paris-Presse L’intransigeant". It was in his company that he took a large part of his photos of 1950s bistros, hanging out in the halls or Mouffetard districts. Robert DOISNEAU is a discreet man, attached to his country, speaking poor English and traveling little. However, in 1960, he went to the United States to photograph Jerry LEWIS on a set in Hollywood and took the opportunity to take pictures with his friend Maurice BAQUET in New York. He also produced a report in the USSR for the CGT newspaper "The working life" (on the achievements of the country's fiftieth anniversary). In the 1980s, at the request of the DATAR (Interministerial Delegation for Regional Planning and Attractiveness), he again explored the suburbs, his favorite space, by taking photographs in color. Over the years, DOISNEAU has bonded with many artists, writers, painters, actors: from Jacques PREVERT to Jacques TATI, from Saul STEINBERG to Pablo PICASSO, from Daniel PENNAC to singer Renaud and Sabine AZEMA, his great friend who dedicated a film for his 80th birthday. These contacts shaped the story of his life. The photographer died in Paris in 1994, leaving a work with multiple entrances.