Robert Doisneau, Blaise Cendrars

A first edition of the photobook La Banlieue de Paris by Robert Doisneau.

• Robert Doisneau (French).
• Text by Blaise Cendrars (Swiss-French).
• La Banlieue de Paris. Texte de Blaise Cendrars sur 130 photos de Robert Doisneau.
• Paris: Pierre Seghers, 1949.
• First French edition.
• Octavo.
• 55, [1], 135, [5] pages.
• Black-and-white photographs printed in gravure.
• Photo-illustrated endpapers, cream printed paper-covered boards, photo-illustrated dustjacket.

Doisneau’s first book is an unsentimental and affectionate look at the lives of the working class in and around the suburbs of Paris, photographed just before the old districts were to change or disappear altogether.

At the time of publication, Doisneau was not well known, though he had already taken several of what were to become his most famous photographs. He met Cendrars whilst on assignment for L’Album du Figaro; the two began a correspondence which, with Cendrars’s support, culminated in this book.

This is the preferred edition. La Guilde du Livre in Lausanne issued a pre-publication version without a dust-jacket, which, while taking precedence, is less desirable.

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