Photobook Art Lab · Paris

Le Paris des flâneries

Paris Photobook Archive

The Paris Photobook Archive, a program of SoFLaFoto’s Photobook Art Lab, gathers 29 books about Paris from the founder’s library, from Eugène Atget’s vanishing city to the contemporary street. Most of the photographers came to Paris from somewhere else, and the books are grouped to show how each generation learned to walk and photograph the city.

ILe vieux Paris

Atget and the vanishing city

Eugène Atget photographed the streets, shopfronts and courtyards of old Paris for three decades, until his death in 1927. Berenice Abbott saved his archive and made his name. These books trace that rescue.

  1. Cover of The World of AtgetThe World of AtgetEugène Atget · Berenice Abbott (ed.) · 1964French
  2. Cover of Eugène Atget: Unknown ParisEugène Atget: Unknown ParisEugène Atget · David Harris · 2003French
  3. Cover of Eugène Atget. ParisEugène Atget. ParisEugène Atget · Jean-Claude Gautrand · 2016French
  4. Cover of Atget: Postcards of a Lost ParisAtget: Postcards of a Lost ParisEugène Atget · Benjamin Weiss · 2017French
  5. Cover of Old Paris and Changing New YorkOld Paris and Changing New YorkEugène Atget and Berenice Abbott · Kevin Moore · 2018French · American
IIParis la nuit

Brassaï, Kertész and the years between the wars

Two Hungarian-born photographers who made Paris their home in the 1920s, and who taught the city to be photographed at night, in its cafés, and from its rooftops and windows.

  1. Cover of The Secret Paris of the 30’sThe Secret Paris of the 30’sBrassaï · 1977Hungarian-born
  2. Cover of Brassaï: ParisBrassaï: ParisBrassaï · Jean-Claude Gautrand · 2008Hungarian-born
  3. Cover of BrassaïBrassaïBrassaï · Peter Galassi · 2019Hungarian-born
  4. Cover of Brassaï: Paris & PicassoBrassaï: Paris & PicassoBrassaï · Henry Miller · 2022Hungarian-born
  5. Cover of André Kertész: Paris, Autumn 1963André Kertész: Paris, Autumn 1963André Kertész · Matthieu Rivallin · 2013Hungarian-born
  6. Cover of André Kertész: Postcards from ParisAndré Kertész: Postcards from ParisAndré Kertész · Sarah Kennel, Elizabeth Siegel · 2021Hungarian-born
IIILa photographie humaniste

The postwar city of the humanist photographers

The tender, crowded, working Paris of the years after the Liberation, as Izis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and Sabine Weiss pictured it, and as postcards and posters have repeated it ever since.

  1. Cover of Paris des rêvesParis des rêvesIzis · 1950Lithuanian-born
  2. Cover of À propos de ParisÀ propos de ParisHenri Cartier-Bresson · 1998French
  3. Cover of Paris Doisneau (compact edition)Paris Doisneau (compact edition)Robert Doisneau · 2009French
  4. Cover of Paris DoisneauParis DoisneauRobert Doisneau · 2014French
  5. Cover of Henri Cartier-Bresson: Paris RevisitedHenri Cartier-Bresson: Paris RevisitedHenri Cartier-Bresson · Agnès Sire, Anne de Mondenard · 2021French
  6. Cover of Sabine Weiss: The Poetry of the InstantSabine Weiss: The Poetry of the InstantSabine Weiss · Virginie Chardin (ed.) · 2022Swiss-born
IVLes étrangers

The outsider’s eye, from 1949 to today

Photographers who came from elsewhere and refused the postcard: rougher, closer and more personal books about the city, its nightlife and the people at its edges.

  1. Cover of Love on the Left BankLove on the Left BankEd van der Elsken · 2002 (first published 1956)Dutch
  2. Cover of paris + kleinparis + kleinWilliam Klein · 2002American
  3. Cover of ParisParisRobert Frank · Ute Eskildsen (ed.) · 2008Swiss-born
  4. Cover of Sketch of ParisSketch of ParisJH Engström · 2013Swedish
  5. Cover of Les Nuits de Place BlancheLes Nuits de Place BlancheChrister Strömholm · 2015Swedish
  6. Cover of Elliott Erwitt’s ParisElliott Erwitt’s ParisElliott Erwitt · 2021American, born in Paris
VPortraits de la ville

Anthologies and portraits of the city

Collections that gather many photographers, or follow one city across time.

  1. Cover of Paris entre chatsParis entre chatsVarious photographers · 2001
  2. Cover of Paris Then and NowParis Then and NowPeter and Oriel Caine · 2003
  3. Cover of Paris mon amourParis mon amourJean-Claude Gautrand · 2004
  4. Cover of Unexpected Paris: A Contemporary PortraitUnexpected Paris: A Contemporary PortraitNicolas Guilbert · Cécile Guilbert, Antoine de Caunes · 2015French
VILe Paris populaire

The people’s city, in prose

Not photobooks but an essay: Lucy Sante’s history of the people’s Paris in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the street life the photographers in this archive went out to find. Kept here in English and in Spanish translation.

  1. Cover of The Other ParisThe Other Paris: The People’s City, Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesLucy Sante (published as Luc Sante) · 2015Belgian-born
  2. Cover of El populacho de ParísEl populacho de París: La ciudad de la gente en los siglos XIX y XXLucy Sante (published as Luc Sante) · Pablo Uroz (trans.) · 2018Belgian-born

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The books documented in this archive belong to the founder’s private library and are made available to SoFLaFoto as an educational and research resource. Their inclusion does not transfer ownership to SoFLaFoto, and the books are not available for loan or sale. Bibliographic data is drawn from the archive’s catalogue and is being checked against publisher and library records. Corrections are welcome. Cover images are shown for identification only; rights holders may request their removal.