“L’information scolaire” Robert Doisneau
By Lucia Permuy, Alba Fornos and Iván Barro
● Table of contents. 1. Introduction..............................................................3 2. A short biography of the photographer..................3, 4 3. Formal analysis of the photografy………………..……4, 5 a. Observation skills……………………………………………….4 i. Action. ii. Theme. iii. Characters. b. The story behind it…………………………………………..….5 c. Technical Knowledge. i. Photographer's point of view. ii. Lightning. iii. Framing. d. The real story of photograph……………..……………...5, 6 4. Conclusion………………………………………………...…………..6 5. Bibliografy……………………………………………………………..7
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1. Introduction. In this project we learned how to analyze a photo. We commented many aspects and gave information about what we could see in it (people, decoration, objects, clothing...). Looking at this photo, we got get to know many things as for example… The comparison of the school life of the children of now and those of before.
2. A short biography of the photographer. The French photographer Robert Doisneau was born in 1912 in Gentilly, near Paris. He was initially trained as a lithographer and engraver. He began photography in 1929. Doisneau learned everything about the image alone. For Robert, photography was the best way to remember his adventures in Paris. Doisneau also learned painting and sculpture. From 1934 to 1939 he worked as a professional photographer for the Renault company in Billancourt. In 1939 he made the decision to dedicate himself to photojournalism. It was the year that World War II broke out and he was enlisted in the French army. He was there until the end of the war, collaborating in the side of the resistance. In 1949 he signed a contract with the prestigious magazine Vogue for which he worked as a freelancer until 1952. Thanks to this work he knew the highest spheres of French society although he always preferred the people of the street.
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Robert Doisneau is known around the world for his street photographs. He reflects the life of the suburbs of Paris in a humorous way but without feeling much empathy. As a result of his work his photographs have become icons of the life of Paris.
3. Formal analysis of the photograph. a. Observation skills. This photo shows a group of boys at school, sitting in their desk and doing some kind of exercise for an exam. The setting represents an old school similar to those of the previous century, with inclined wooden desks and big windows in the background. The lateral sides don't have any windows. We cannot see the teacher's desk because the photo was taken from the bottom right hand corner. The boys are all young, they seem to be around eight or ten years old. We can only see the faces of three of them because the rest are in the shadows; the nearest boy is looking up, with his hands in the desk and seems to be thinking. With this photo the photographer shows us an important part of his ​live at childhood, which is education, school, and the relationships with colleagues.
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b. The story behind it. We have different versions: In the first version, we think that the picture was taken between 30’s or 40’s. At this time some countries were at war. The child is in class but he is distracted and he daydreams. In this dream, the child admires his father because he went to war. He thinks his father is brave but he misses him. The child sees his father as a superhero who will save the world. He is thinking of the time when the letter that his father promised him will come. The boy doesn’t know that this letter will never arrive because his father was shot while he was fighting for his country. In the second version, we think that the guy is making calculations and he is thinking.
d. The real story of photograph. In this photograph, Robert Doisneau wanted to remember to old people the nostalgia of their youth spent on the school benches and to the youngest their daily from a tender and amusing point of view. The attitude of the pupils during the tests does not change. We can easily identify with them by imagining ourselves.. The photographer took pains to stage all the "typical" pupils in a class during a test: the student who reflects the frown, the person who scratches his head, who is focused on his copy and of course, the student who cheats on his neighbor!
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Everyone can find himself in this photograph through his "double of the fifties". If we put this photograph back into the context of the period in which it was taken, the Thirty Glories and the baby boom, we can also think that Robert Doisneau wanted to show the population of the time that the " School was essential for children. Nowadays, this photograph keeps its full meaning. It reminds us that children are the center of society and that their education plays a decisive role in the development of society.
4. Conclusion. We think that the project is interesting but a bit difficult. We learned to describe pictures and see behind the images.
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5. Bibliography. - Loly
Lago
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Working
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Photo-Journalist
<http://xurl.es/mhvvp>. - Loly
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Visual
Literacy
Practice
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<http://xurl.es/4n37p>. - Anonymous - Robert Doisneau <http://xurl.es/bkpx9>.
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