From March 5 to July 19, 2026, the Museo del Genio in Rome will host a major retrospective devoted to Robert Doisneau, one of the most beloved photographers of the twentieth century and a leading figure of French humanist photography. Curated by the Atelier Robert Doisneau and Gabriele Accornero, and produced by Arthemisia, the exhibition offers a coherent and immersive journey through Doisneau’s career, presenting more than 140 photographs that reveal the depth of a gaze that helped define the “French iconography” of the postwar years.

Born in a Paris suburb in 1912, Doisneau trained as a lithographer at the École Estienne before turning to photography, capturing the everyday life of the working-class neighbourhoods where he grew up. After an early experience alongside artist André Vigneau, he was hired by Renault in 1934 as an industrial photographer. He later moved into advertising photography with the Rapho agency and produced numerous reportages for Vogue in the postwar period.

If the postwar years marked a time of material and moral reconstruction, humanist photography became a language of hope, and Doisneau remains one of its most recognizable faces. His focus on daily life in the suburbs and on ordinary citizens resulted in images that portray a simple, supportive France, far removed from official rhetoric. The Paris of his photographs is not monumental, but intimate and popular—the city of cafés and passersby—captured in gestures that appear spontaneous and fleeting.

While many photographers documented the devastation of war, Doisneau chose instead to convey a more consoling and humane vision of society, focusing on life as it slowly resumed in the streets and on the margins, with irony and emotional depth. It was during these years that he earned the nickname “fisherman of images,” reflecting a slow and patient approach to photography, one that waits for the right moment to tell a story capable of engaging the viewer’s imagination.

Among the highlights of the Roman exhibition are celebrated images featuring some of his most “literary” and picturesque subjects, from the small dog on wheels in Un chien à roulettes to the concierge in La concierge aux lunettes, culminating in the iconic Le Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville. Part of a 1950 Life magazine assignment on Parisian lovers, the photograph brought Doisneau international acclaim. Not only did it give decisive momentum to his career—he was included the following year in MoMA’s exhibition Five French Photographers alongside Izis, Willy Ronis, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Brassaï—but it also stands as a testament to a society rebuilding itself, rediscovering solidarity and vitality after the horrors of war.

Beyond his classic street scenes and Parisian views, the exhibition also features portraits of some of the twentieth century’s leading cultural figures, captured in their most unguarded moments: Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger and Georges Braque, as well as cinema and fashion icons such as Brigitte Bardot, Elsa Schiaparelli and Juliette Binoche.

Opening image: Robert Doisneau, Le baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville, 1950. Fine art print on silver salts paper from original negatives, 50x40 cm © Atelier Robert Doisneau