2023-11-12 04:30:11
It’s a timeless place. Like a place fixed forever, with the click of a shutter, click-clack. Like an ageless black and white photo that would never take on a sepia or faded tone on the retina and in memories. The Atelier Robert Doisneau, in Montrouge, in Hauts-de-Seine, is in the image of the artist who lived there from 1937 until his death on April 1, 1994, at the age of 81: a sparkling place of life, remaining in its juice of happiness.
An immense joy of living emerges from the hundreds of boxes filled with images carefully arranged by theme and in alphabetical order on shelves, from the four hundred and fifty thousand negatives kept in a large cold room maintained at a constant temperature of 16 degrees, from the mixes prints scattered on the tables. The cheerfulness also exudes from the voices of the heads and the cascading laughter of the two women who reign supreme: Annette Doisneau and Francine Deroudille, the photographer’s daughters. For thirty years, they have made the fund their exclusive kingdom. Their thing, the evil tongues gnaw.
On one wall dominates a huge self-portrait taken in 1949 by the man who claimed not to be a hunter but a fisherman of images, patiently waiting for a scene to come and bite his photographic bait. Under the eye – obviously, the eye – laughing and caring of their father, the two sisters, aged 81 and 76, maintain the sustainability of his work.
Perpetuating the memory of man
That day, Francine, the youngest, is in deep conversation with Hervé Hudry, one of the most prestigious film photographers, who worked with Robert Doisneau. The reframing of a portrait of Callas planned for an exhibition in Italy is at the center of the discussion. Like this or rather like this? “My father reframed a lot, unlike Henri Cartier-Bresson who hated it,” justifies Francine, in case any purists find fault.
On the ground, expansions wrapped in bubble wrap are waiting to reach this or that picture rail in France or abroad. On another wall is taped the poster of an exhibition devoted to Robert Doisneau since October 15 at the Museum of the National Resistance, in Champigny-sur-Marne. The photographer never claimed to be a resistance fighter, just an author “acts of resistance”. He made false papers for anyone who asked him.
In the Atelier de Montrouge, large format prints of photos by Robert Doisneau, including the famous “Kiss from the Town Hall”, await their departure for an exhibition. October 30, 2023. ALEXANDRE GUIRKINGER FOR “M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE”
One day a Jewish gentleman rang at the workshop door who had the police on his tail. In a hurry, Robert Doisneau gave him his identity card. “Mr. Dobkowski lived through the rest of the war under the name Doisneau. He will remain a great friend,” says Francine. Thus, the two sisters not only manage their father’s work: they also perpetuate the man’s memory. Priesthood of many rights holders to have to live vicariously in the shadow of their genius as a progenitor, to have to maintain one’s posterity and defend it from the claws of the piss-cold who emerge from the future.
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