Robert Doisneau

The Museo del Genio hosts Robert Doisneau, the exhibition that transforms photography into memory, emotion and visual poetry. Rome pays tribute to Robert Doisneau, one of the greatest masters of 20th-century photography, with a compelling exhibition featuring more than 140 of his most iconic images, guiding visitors into the everyday life of Paris.

Born in Gentilly in 1912, Doisneau was one of the leading figures of French humanist photography, able to portray street life with irony, tenderness and remarkable sensitivity. In his images, workers, playing children, lovers, cafés and working-class neighbourhoods become fragments of humanity suspended in time. His unmistakable black-and-white photography does not seek spectacle, but rather the truth of simple gestures, turning fleeting moments into photographs destined to endure.

At the heart of the exhibition is the celebrated “Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville” (1950), taken in front of the Hôtel de Ville during a reportage commissioned by the magazine Life. In the image – which would become one of the universal symbols of love and of the city of Paris – two young drama students, Françoise Bornet and Jacques Carteaud, kiss while the city continues to move around them. Initially published in small format, the photograph only became a true icon decades later, spreading through posters and postcards and eventually embodying the very idea of romantic Paris.

Alongside this legendary image, the exhibition presents other memorable photographs such as “Un chien à roulettes”, “La concierge aux lunettes” and “L’information scolaire”, forming part of a visual narrative that spans the artist’s entire career, from the 1930s to his later works. Parisian streets, children’s games, chance encounters and small everyday episodes create a universe made of fragile yet timeless moments, observed with a discreet and profoundly human gaze.

Behind the apparent lightness of his images lies a deeper reflection. Doisneau once described photography as a “battle against the idea that we are destined to disappear.” Each photograph becomes a way of holding back time, preserving the beauty of life’s simplest moments and reminding us that existence is made of small gestures worth rescuing from oblivion.

The French photographer captured not only street life but also many of the great cultural figures of the twentieth century. In front of his lens appeared Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, Brigitte Bardot, Elsa Schiaparelli and Juliette Binoche. Even when photographing such celebrated figures, however, his approach remained the same: no rhetoric, only authenticity.

Produced by Arthemisia with the patronage of the French Embassy in Italy, the Lazio Region and the City of Rome, the exhibition also arrives at a symbolic moment: the bicentenary of photography, which began in 1826 with the first image created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. At the same time, it celebrates the 70th anniversary of the twinning between Rome and Paris, further strengthening the cultural bond between the two capitals.

Cover image: Robert Doisneau, Le baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville, 1950, fine art silver-gelatin print from original negatives, 50 × 40 cm © Atelier Robert Doisneau.