COLOTYPE ROBERT DOISNEAU

Born in Gentilly, Paris in 1922, Robert Doisneau is one of France's foremost photographers. During his long career, his poetic approach to street photography recorded everyday French life in often playful and surreal images.

Always delighted with his subjects, he enjoyed finding amusing juxtapositions or oddities of human nature. He photographed a wide range of people and events, often juxtaposing conformist and nonconformist elements in images marked by an exquisite sense of humor, anti-establishment values and, above all, his profound humanism.

Of cardionists, lovers, and artists, Doisneau's photographs infuse images of everyday life with poetic undertones. Carefully hand-printed in black and white by artisans, we are grateful to have the opportunity to collotype the unique and anecdotal account of Doisneau's Paris.

The collotype was a photomechanical printing procedure (in graphic arts workshops). Conceived in 1856 by Louis Alphonse Poitevin , it was later perfected by Joseph Albert , for which reason it also spread under the name of Albertipo .

On a matrix made up of a glass plate, a layer of photosensitive emulsion made up of bichromate gelatin was spread, which was subjected to firing, and then impressed by contact with the original photographic negative. The gelatin became more insoluble in the transparent areas thereof. In this way the ink was more easily absorbed in those transparent areas.

This procedure allowed a limited number of 500 copies to be thrown ; because the gelatin deteriorated during the printing process, and sharpness was lost.

Among the photographers who used this system for print runs, Alfred Stieglitz can be mentioned.

Size: 8" x 10"