“There is a kind of pathos about the bride drinking at the bar. Humor is a feeling of shame for overt emotion. When the scene is too tender - or too cruel- you take refuge in humor to avoid that sense of embarrassment"
~ Robert Doisneau
1912-1994
Robert was renowned for his tenderness and sense of humor coming out of the dark days imposed by the trials and tribulations of the Second World War in Europe. He developed one of the most “compassionate gazes” of his generation of photographers including, Boubat, Ronis, Sabine Weiss - the classic 1950’s school of French Humanism.
In this celebrated image Robert was working on a magazine story about the post war marriage boom. As he says ..
“They weren’t a real wedding couple but models from the Joinville film studios. I asked them if they wouldn’t mind me making a photo, yes they agreed and by chance in walked a “bougnat” (a coal miner who moved from rural France to Paris). Of course it’s a bit crude, the black and the white…. in addition he was very shy…….. you know a guy completely black alongside all that whiteness, he is bound to be a bit awkward and that creates a tension”.
Even though the image is partially “posed” it has never taken away from the absolute charm of the image for me. Chance played into Robert’s life that day with a glorious result.
