"For over six decades, Robert Doisneau cast his net in still waters, light years away from the predatory news photographers of today, "feeling his way", in his own words, `prompted by feelings of attraction and repulsion, tossed hither and thither by events, and allowing intuition its head - even when it kicked over the traces..."
Doisneau delighted in gleaning the instant. Clear of gaze, a man with a winning smile, he liked to say "I never noticed time passing, I was too taken up with the spectacle afforded by my contemporaries, that gratuitous, never-ending show for which no ticket is needed, and when the occasion arose, I offered them, in passing, the ephemeral solace of an image". Throughout the years Doisneau captured, day after day, "the ordinary gestures of ordinary people in ordinary situations". Joys he felt and discoveries he made as he walked the city make up the subject-matter of his photographs: "There are days when simply seeing feels like happiness itself ... You feel so rich, the elation seems almost excessive and you want to share it"..."