At once cosmopolitan metropolis and venue for a pensive stroll, Moloch and emblem of the modern, Paris has been a source of inspiration for countless artists and writers down the ages. But not least it is the home and constant muse of a relatively young art: photography. Since the earliest days of the daguerreotype right up to our time, renowned photographers such as Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Jeanloup Sieff have lived and worked in the city of lights. Over the years a love affair developed between Paris and photography, giving rise to a remarkable record of the metropolis and a telling history of a new art form. This volume takes the reader on numerous walks, camera in hand, through the streets of Paris. Atmospheric black-and-white photos, shot by great photographers over two centuries, reveal the dramatic and the tranquil, the historic and the everyday—in the capital`s parks and gardens, boulevards and backstreets, passages and arcades, bistros and nightclubs.

About the author:
Jean-Claude Gautrand, born in 1932, is one of France's most distinguished experts on photography. An active photographer since 1960, he has also made a name for himself as a journalist and critic, with numerous publications.