Taschen and Jean-Claude Gautrand are releasing a wonderful new book with over 400 photographs by Robert Doisneau, with half of them rarely or never published. I knew Robert Doisneau. We had lunch together two or three times per year. He was an unusual character, and one of my most cherished memories involves him. One morning in the late ‘70s, I woke up depressed. I was supposed to have lunch with Doisneau, and I thought about calling to cancel, but in the end I didn’t. Doisneau arrived, laughing. He had just come from a medical check-up. “Naudet,” he said. “I have a story for you.”
Doisneau had been lying down, hooked up to some medical device, when the doctor came in with his horde of interns. After a few seconds, the doctor’s face went white and he called everybody outside. Doisneau could hear them talking in the hallway: “This time it’s serious… We don’t have time to wait, we have to make a decision.” Doisneau got up and started removing the wires attached to his body. The doctor came back. “What are you doing, Monsieur Doisneau?” he asked. “Tell me the truth,” Doisneau said. “Oh no, Monsieur Doisneau, you’re fine. We were talking about the machine—it’s broken!”
My depression disappeared instantly, and a few months later during another lunch, he told me about the weeks he had spent assisting Irving Penn on his series Petits Métiers.
BOOK
Robert Doisneau
Editions Taschen
By Jean Claude Gautrand
25 x 34 cm
540 pages
€ 49,99
