On Location: A photographers' guide to Paris

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"Photography is everywhere in Paris. The French capital is where Louis Daguerre unveiled his daguerreotype method of photo-making in 1839, and photography has been written into the city’s fabric ever since. There is the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, where Robert Doisneau (1912–1994) staged his 1950 photograph Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville, picturing a couple
kissing in a busy Parisian street. […] Elsewhere, the Place de l’Europe, behind Saint-Lazare train station, marks the spot where Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) captured his famous photograph of a man mid-leap, his feet hovering over a pool of water. […] Meanwhile, the Cirque d’Hiver set the stage for Richard Avedon’s (1923–2004) iconic image of the model Dovima dressed in an elegant Dior gown posing alongside circus elephants. Closer to home, the curious

intersection of Rue Beauregard and Rue de Cléry, near where I live, inspired several photographers: Eugène Atget, André Kertész, Roger Schall, Brassaï, Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson.

Institutions dedicated to photography also fill the city. Every day, images pour into the Agence France- Presse (AFP) ’bunker’, located in the Place de la Bourse, before a fraction
of them appear in newspapers and on news sites. It’s a reminder of Gamma, Sygma and Sipa Press, the photo agencies that made Paris the hub of photojournalism in the 1970s and 80s but that are now defunct or have been absorbed by conglomerates."

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