Kiss by the Hotel de Ville

The most famous photo by Robert Doisneau “Le baiser de l'hotel de ville” (Kiss by the Hotel de Ville) was made in 1950 for “Life” journal.

It is one of the most outstanding photos ever, the symbol of Paris, youth, love and spring.

The picture looks rather accidentally, as if the lovers do not suspect of the photographer’s presence; even if one can reveal some kind of theatricality in their poses, the general spontaneity of the scene, “careless” composition, seems not to rule out the idea of staging.

In the same 1950th the picture was published in “Life” in a warm company of other six Paris kisses. Negative and proves got, as they had to, into the RAFO agency’s archives. They have been here for more than 30 years. The photo became world-famous in 1986 when it served as a picture for the poster.

For the next 20 years “Le baiser de l'hotel de ville” has been published on 2.5 million postcards, on a half a million posters, say nothing of different calendars, postage stamps, T-shirts, curtains, furnishing and numerous photo albums. I think it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Doisneau made much more money due to this one picture, than due to all other photos taken together!