Robert Doisneau's sounds of 20th-century Paris – in pictures

From the mid-1940s to the late 80s, the celebrated photographer captured the musicians who provided the city’s soundtrack, including Juliette Gréco and Les Rita Mitsouko

All photographs: estate of Robert Doisneau

Main image: Street party, Paris, 1959 Photograph: Robert Doisneau/Gamma-Rappho

  • Antony, the Sunday Bugler, 1947

    Rolleiflex camera slung over his shoulder, Robert Doisneau travelled for years around in Paris and its suburbs. Throughout his very human photographs, a love of music is mingled with an admiration for the people making it.
    Le Clairon du dimanche, Antony, 1947 THE SONG ”My ear is completely fallow for the classic, but the song helps me.In the street, you whistle little tunes that give you courage.” Photographer reporter, technician unparalleled, Robert Doisneau knows how to do everything and newspaper editors do not deprive himself of his talent.In 1947, thanks to his reports in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Doisneau made contact with Pierre and Jacques Prévert. His meeting with the poet leads to many walks in the north of Paris, from the Canal Saint-Martin to the Porte de la Villette. Having become one of his close friends, Jacques Prévert will have a major influence on his work.

  • Juliette Gréco, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1947

    This photograph captures the 21-year-old chanteuse and her dog, Bidet, who at this point was probably more famous than his mistress. Bidet appeared at Théâtre Montparnasse alongside Gérard Philippe in Alfred Savoir’s play Le Figurant de la Gaîté – Doisneau was illustrating a report on the mutt for the newspaper Point of View
    4 Juliette Gréco, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1947 © Atelier Robert Doisneau

  • Eartha Kitt, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1950

    ‘The cellars, the people, the artists, and ultimately all that constitutes the high point of western civilisation,’ said Doisneau, describing the Saint-Germain-des-Prés jazz scene. He photographed those who passed through including Big Bill Broonzy, Mezz Mezzrow, Bill Coleman, Claude Luter – and Kitt
    Eartha Kitt, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 1950Singer Eartha Kitt in the Night Club, 1950 in Paris, France.

  • Singer Renaud in the suburbs in 1988

    ‘Wandering is a lonely vice,’ said Doisneau of his ramblings around the streets of Paris. ‘I would be very ashamed to show my hesitations, my regrets and, above all, my unreasonable expectations’
    The singer Renaud in the streets of Paris, 1988.

  • Kentucky Club, 1959

    The Kentucky Club on Valette Street is a bistro that was turned into a jazz club in 1948 by an old legionnaire, Alex Garcini
    La toupie, 1959Bal populaire dans une rue du 5ème arrondissement de Paris en France, le 14 juillet 1959.

  • French cellist Maurice Baquet, 1958

    ‘When our paths crossed, I found the man who taught me happiness,’ said Baquet of Doisneau. Their collaboration opened up a new seam of freedom and creativity for the photographer. As soon as they met after the second world war, they began making a book that appeared in 1981 and featured special effects, photomontages and collages
    French cellist Maurice Baquet, 1958

  • Les Rita Mitsouko at Parc de la Villette, 1988

    In the 1980s, Doisneau photographed a whole new generation of artists, including Rita Mitsouko, Les Négresses Vertes and Renaud
    Les Rita Mitsouko, 1988; Parc de la Villette

  • Composer, theorist and writer Pierre Schaeffer, 1961

    Pierre Betz, editor of the magazine Le Point, commissioned Doisneu to report on ‘the adventure of music in the 20th century’. In 1961, he immortalised the avant-garde musicians Pierre Boulez, Pierre Schaeffer, Henri Dutilleux and André Jolivet, photographing the artists with the tools of their trade
    Composer, theorist and writer Pierre Schaeffer, 1961

  • The Gypsies of Montreuil, 1950

    Doisneau, who died in 1994, left behind roughly 450,000 negatives
    Les gitans de Montreuil 1950 (c) Atelier Robert Doisneau The gypsies of Montreuil in 1950
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