The work of the French photographer, Robert Doisneau (b. 1912), represents one of the high points of humanist reportage in the 20th century. His photographs display a constant fascination with the variety of human experience, and reveal a deep emotional response. Doisneau's work is about France and the French, and about how the French see themselves. The photographs he took during the period from 1945 to the end of the 1960s have recently become icons of nostalgia for a much younger generation. Doisneau describes himself as a 'subjective' photographer who wants to help people to see things which will move them or make them laugh. His images of joy, pleasure, happiness and romance reveal an optimistic and positive perspective on human nature and portray a belief in our ability to surmount affliction and hardship. As society has changed, and whole neighbourhoods been demolished, Doisneau has used his camera to document a lost architecture and a forgotten way of life. Especially fascinating are his studies of Les Halles, knocked down to make way for shops and the Centre Pompidou, with their moving studies of the lives of working people as well as the physical environment which has now gone forever. This marvellous book contains 107 original black and white photographs covering the long career of one of history's greatest photographers, with extremely fine duo-tone printing by Pizzi, recognised as one of the world's highest quality printers.