Awesome Gift for Francophiles who Love Paris and Photography

I have a small stack of French-related coffee table books that I’ve wanted to review for months but waited until December since I think they’d make great gifts. Today’s post was intended to supplement a previous piece, 35 Sensational Reads for the Francophiles on your Gift List. When I sat down to write, however, I realized that one of the compendiums, a big heavy volume at the bottom of the aforementioned stack, outshines the rest and deserves my full attention. Paris, Portrait of a City, by Jean Claude Gautrand, is a feast for the eyes and the mind—a book that despite its heft, I expect to hold onto until my days are spent in a recliner, my arms too weak to steady the thing above my lap.

The massive volume of more than 500 pages recounts nearly two centuries of Parisian history via iconic photographs shot by illustrious artists, as well as anonymous camera buffs. This rich quilt of images is divided into 5 time periods, each of which begins with a summary of the most impactful events of the given era. Language lovers will appreciate the tri-lingual presentation, with all text and captions delivered in French, English, and German.

What follows is a tiny peek inside Paris, Portrait of a City.

Paris, 1830 – 1871

Often cited as the inventor of photography, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre began demonstrating his revolutionary craft as early as 1839. Daguerre shot this picture of the Boulevard du Temple in March of that year. The 8:00 am exposure lasted between 20 and 30 minutes. The only people visible in the frame are a shoe shiner and his client who were stationary long enough to freeze their images onto the silver plate inside Daguerre’s camera.

Charles Nègre was a painter who picked up one Daguerre’s cameras in 1944 and thereafter was hooked on France’s newest art form. Nègre is one of the first photographers to capture everyday scenes from the streets and markets of Paris. The photo below shows an organ grinder seemingly reluctant to perform for his wee audience. The charms of such musicians are somewhat in doubt. Apparently, the streets of Paris were so full of these quasi-melodious instruments that in 1860, Parisian protests led to a decree that banned them from the city.

Born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, Nadar began his career as a journalist but went on to add caricaturist and photographer to his long list of successful endeavors. In 1861, after registering a patent for photography in artificial light, Nadar carried out tests in Paris’ underground Catacombs to prove the effectiveness of his technique. This underground maze of galleries lies in what once was a massive quarry. In the late 1700s, the largest cemetery in Paris, holding nearly ten centuries of human remains, was emptied of its bones. Quarry workers transferred the skeletal parts to the catacombs, then sorted and distributed them into various galleries. 

Throughout the 1840s, Charles Marville worked as a painter, engraver, and draftsman. His first photographs were published in 1851. In 1862, he began work on an enormous photo collection to document regions of Paris that were being destroyed under orders from the city’s chief urban planner, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann (appointed by Napoleon III). Marville’s photo of the Rue du Passage Saint-Louis, reveals a zone on the edge of the city that was occupied by immigrant workers from the provinces, as well as working-class Parisians who were uprooted in an effort to clear Paris of its slums.

Paris, 1871 – 1914

You’ve probably heard of the Moulin Rouge, the famous Parisian cabaret, best known for its high-kicking, petticoat-ruffling can-can dancers. When it opened in 1889, however, the famous entertainment venue featured an open-air stage and café where spectators could dine and sip champagne as they took in a show. The garden-like setting also featured a giant stucco elephant that was fashioned from nearly one million pieces of wood!

One of the world’s first sports photographers, André Schelcher, became interested in ballooning at the turn of the 20th century. Schelcher teamed up with his friend Albert Omer-Decugis to produce the photo below, which first appeared as a double-page spread in a 1909 issue of the French weekly l’Illustration.

Paris, 1914 – 1939

Born in Brasso, Transylvania, one of the 19th century’s foremost artists (photographer, sculptor, medalist, writer, and filmmaker), Brassaï, began his career working as a journalist in Paris. In the photo below, he captures a beloved figure from les années folles, Kiki de Montparnasse, lounging with her girlfriends.

One of my favorite photographers who appears repeatedly throughout Gautrand’s book is Robert Doisneau. Known as a champion of humanist photography, in 1930 Doisneau began documenting life in Paris with shots like the one below.

Paris, 1939 – 1959

After swiftly defeating the French in the spring of 1940, German troops marched into Paris on June 14 and quickly took over the city. At the time, André Zucca was an internationally acclaimed photojournalist who had lived and worked all over the world, contributing to publications such as Paris Soir, Paris Match, Life, and Picture Post. From 1941 to 1944, however, he worked in Paris for the German magazine Signal, a propaganda organ of the German Wehrmach.

Soon after Germany began its occupation, Jews were banned from restaurants, cafés, beaches, libraries, markets, sports venues, historic monuments, and parks. They were also forced to wear the yellow six-point star with the word “Juif” written on the left side of the chest. It’s heartbreaking to look back at the two vibrant women below, walking along the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, unaware of the horrors that lie ahead.

In August 1944, members of the French Resistance played a key role in ending Germany’s occupation of Paris by constructing hundreds of barricades throughout the city, retaking control of dozens of government buildings, and engaging in direct armed conflict with German forces who were much better-equipped.

A student of photographer Man Ray, American fashion model Lee Miller launched her own photography career in 1930 and became one of the American Army’s first female war correspondents. In 1944, she covered the American landing in Normandy for Life. Less than 6 months after the liberation of Paris, Miller snapped this iconic photo that conveys a sense of peace but also of tremendous loss.

Born in Switzerland in 1924, Sabine Weiss moved to Paris in 1946 after earning a diploma in photography. A disciple of Robert Doisneau, Weiss loved photographing children, claiming that when doing so, she became a child herself. Here’s a bit of what she wrote about the photo below.

Born in Dierschau, Prussia in 1898, Alfred Eisenstaedt, began his career in Germany where he photographed leading figures of Hitler’s regime. His family was Jewish, however, and by 1935 he recognized that it was no longer safe to remain in Germany. He fled to the United States where he became a prominent staff photographer for Life, contributing 86 cover images before leaving in 1972. Below, Dierschau captures one of the clear advantages of growing old—doing what you feel like doing regardless of protocol or decorum.

Paris, 1959 – 2011

The Austrian-born photographer, Harry Shunk, became a darling of portraiture during the 1960s and 70s. Many of Shunk’s clients were famous artists in their own right, residing in either New York or Paris—Magritte, Calder, Warhol, and Christo, to name a few. In the photo below, the French painter Yves Klein throws himself out a second-floor window in an effort to illustrate his theories about levitation. In reality, Shunk adeptly retouched the photo to hide Klein’s friends who dampened the plummet with an outstretched sheet.

Born in a suburb of Paris, Gilles Caron had a storied career as a photojournalist, covering conflicts around the globe. In May 1968, student organizers, joined by university professors, called for a march to protest police actions at the Sorbonne. When over 20,000 protestors failed to heed measures to deter the crowd, police responded with batons and tear gas. Hundreds were arrested. Seven weeks of unrest ensued, marked by ongoing strikes and rioting. Caron closely covered the protest, capturing images like the one below that didn’t exactly soften people’s attitudes toward police brutality.

Considered a master of candid photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the co-founders of the international cooperative Magnum Photos. The photo below demonstrates Cartier-Bresson’s preference for shooting in black and white. Approximately one year after this picture was taken, Paris elected its first mayor in over a century, Jacques Chirac. I was surprised to learn that between 1871 and 1977, Paris was headed by an appointee of the federal government.

Your thoughts?

With more than 450 images to choose from, picking the best samples for this post was an impossible task. I hope that I’ve managed to convey a sense of the book’s appeal. I happened to check the current price from an online retailer of dubious renown and my jaw dropped to find a cost of $30 for the hardback edition shown at the top of this page.

Anyway, let me know which photographs were your favorites and if some of the facts behind the iconic scenes were new to you.