Life Lite: Playful Moments in Street Photography Inspired by Robert Doisneau
Paris in monochrome sets style framed in humor.
Walking the streets of Paris, or any other European city, requires a keen eye, monochrome image, and specific camera setting to take a photo quickly when spotting a spontaneous activity depicting real-life idiosyncrasies.
Probably the most comical of the 20th-century photographers, Robert Doisneau made it a point to amuse. He’s one you can bucket list for inspiration, and he's a forever favorite of mine.
Whether it be a child gazing at the clock in the classroom or two children walking on their hands, their bodies in the same configuration, Doisneau walked the streets of Paris looking for the antics people, primarily children, could get into.
Whether he got his material from inside a café or someone’s home, his photographs showed the happy moments in French life. His photograph, Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Hotel de Ville), has been viewed worldwide, making it one of the most recognizable images of Paris. Doiseneau will always be remembered because he photographed the liberation of Paris at the end of World War II. Today, he is a hero of French popular culture, with calendars, cards, and books that contain his photographs on sale all over the city.
Human Interaction with Surroundings
Doisneau played with his surroundings, you can too.
Robert Doisneau was a master at catching human interaction with everything from characters embedded in architecture to clocks hanging on the wall. His famous 1952 work, L’enfer boite de nuit, Place Pigalle, Paris (Hell Nightclub), has a uniformed man walking by the open mouth of a vast monster embedded into the façade of a building. He caught the man juxtaposed against the inside of the mouth, a slide-down door with horizontal stripes. Above him are teeth, nose, and huge bulging eyes.
These (and most) Doisneau photographs used Paris backdrops creatively. He made images playful in fascinating narratives, juxtaposing Parisians against a backdrop of quintessential Paris.
Today, Paris is still as unique as it was in the 1940s when Doiseneau photographed it. Few places in the world have an abundance of substantial poster advertisements that you can touch, just as Paris does. The Paris subway system is littered with walls plastered with huge ads, which make for some fun photography, especially when you have subjects interact with them.
An image with a Doisneau spirit of making a story out of the surrounding environment. The image uses an open mouth like Doiseneau had in his L’enfer boite de nuit. The narrative is there (a model is eating the woman’s head), and it’s French (advertising French mineral water).
Make Paris Scenes Frisky
Doisnaeau said, “The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected you find in the street.” In Paris and other cities, this is no understatement. You can find many good shots if you are aware of your surroundings.
In Les Jardins du Champ de Mars, shot in 1944, Doisneau caught a group of running and jumping children with the Eiffel Tower in the background off center in the frame and trees to the right of it. The children in the foreground are sharp, and the Eiffel Tower is slightly soft.
A similar photo you can capture, keeping Doisneau in mind, is of riding a bicycle. Go to the Eiffel Tower for shenanigans, perfect for a shot at French life. For example, I first noticed how beautiful the setting and the Eiffel Tower were together. Then I saw the little girl, lifted the camera hanging on my neck, and shot the scene.
There are two ways to get a good background around a compelling subject in a big city like Paris. The first is to look for stylized architecture and monuments. Hey, the Eiffel Tower will do.
Background Placement
Creating a powerful backdrop for subjects and objects requires a point-of-view adjustment.
You can choose between two:
Wait around until a surprise moves into the foreground of a compelling background that you locate.
The second way to get a good background is to spot your subject. Then, navigate it until you see that your background is acceptable.
You need to use a wide aperture to freeze the action of something moving. You can use aperture priority mode, setting your aperture to f/5 (wider if it’s cloudy). If you set your aperture very wide (f/2.8 or wider), only part of your subject(s) will come out sharp (the part around the auto-focus point).
Tip
On the street, you want to use the fastest setting on your lens. What this means is that setting your aperture wide (f/4 or wider) in aperture priority (Av) mode. In doing so, a good amount of light will come into your lens so the shutter speed will be shorter. Also, I find that single-point autofocus works well at capturing sharp images.
Frame the Audience
Street performers are framed with an audience watching.
Armed with a camera set with an aperture that was neither wide nor narrow, Doisneau caught a crowd watching a man curl a barbell in his image Banquiste, Place De La Bastille taken in 1946. With biceps flexed, the man takes the barbell, not in his hands, but on his forearms. He’s slightly stooped over with knees bent, an action that makes what he is doing look tough. The barbell consists of two round weight balls at each end. In the back of the weightlifter is a man who looks to be presenting the show. Behind him, a large crowd gazes, looking at the man’s back, and in the distance is a carousel.
The up-in-the-air gymnastics above shows a street performance in Berlin (the Brandenburg Gate is in the distant background). In the shot, I frame a crowd behind the performers. Since the crowd was arranged in a semicircle around the performers, I could not get them in the background while standing to watch the front of the performers’ bodies. I had to move to the back of the performers and crowd where no one else stood and shoot the performers so that the crowd was behind them.
Tip
Street theater always captivates whether it’s in real life or a photograph. Catching a street performance in the way that Doisneau did requires that you do two things: set your aperture to between f/4 to f/5.6 so that there’s a better possibility that the entire frame stays sharp and make sure that you frame a crowd behind the performer.
To get a better chance for your shot to be sharp, you’re going to have to shoot at least a dozen pictures of the scene. You might think the framing is obvious and you’ll always get a crowd in the background.
Many times you won’t because you’ll be facing the performer along with other people and no one will be behind him. When you shoot, you’ll get a background of whatever’s on the street, not a compelling possibility.
Seriously, considering black-and-white for Parisian photos is sure to give your image a throw-back feel. Two decades ago, I shot in black-and-white 35mm film in Paris. I was fortunate enough to catch a woman walking a dog in a beautiful checkered coat that was rich and compelling in monochrome.
Paris and Europe Photography Takeaway
When in Paris (and in Europe), do as the master photographers did. Find odd scenes that tickle the black-and-white senses. Parisian Robert Doisnaeau shows you the path for humorous photos that capture the human imagination.
By looking for oddities such as capturing performers up in the air, children being children, members of the clergy dashing frantically, and subjects that stand out in a crowd because of their apparent contrasts and juxtapositions of objects that are seemingly unreal, you’ll be off to a worthwhile photography exhibition that may get the attention of gallery owners and museum curators.