I fell in love with it many years ago. An exboyfriend spent many hours searching Parisian shops for this photo because he knew I loved it. What a wonderful surprise to receive it by mail.
My secret desire to be married in Paris... How romantic!
I love the imagery of the scene. Taken in black and white, a man and woman standing in the middle of a busy Parisian street embraced in a kiss. The people dressed in clothes and hair styles unique to the era of the 1950s.
I was told me that the photo was not planned, just a spontaneous moment in time captured by photography. What a romantic dream.
Since then I have found the identity of the couple remained a mystery until 1992. It was planned by the photographer because it was against French laws for photographers to take photos of people without their consent because people owned their identity. More on this below - it raises some important points about photography ownership.
Despite this, the photographer managed to capture a sense of spontaneity of a kiss.
"The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Robert Doisneau.
You can read more about the photographer if you follow this link to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Doisneau
History on the couple and the photo (from Robert Doisneau autobiography wikipedia see above link to read more)
Jean and Denise Lavergne erroneously believed themselves to be the couple in The Kiss, and when Robert and Annette met them for lunch in the 1980s he "did not want to shatter their dream" so he said nothing. This resulted in them taking him to court for "taking their picture without their knowledge", because under French law an individual owns the rights to their own likeness. The court action forced Doisneau to reveal that he posed the shot using Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud, lovers whom he had just seen kissing but had not initially photographed because of his natural reserve, but he approached them and asked if they would repeat le baiser. He won the court case against the Lavergnes.[1][3][10][11]
“ "I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate." Robert Doisneau. 1992[9][10] ”
The couple in Le baiser were Françoise Delbart,[12] 20, and Jacques Carteaud, 23, both aspiring actors. In 2005 Françoise Bornet (née Delbart) stated that "He told us we were charming, and asked if we could kiss again for the camera. We didn't mind. We were used to kissing. We were doing it all the time then, it was delicious. Monsieur Doisneau was adorable, very low key, very relaxed." They posed at the Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and finally the Hôtel de Ville. The photograph was published in the June 12, 1950, issue of Life.[11] The relationship between Delbart and Carteaud only lasted for nine months.[10] Delbart continued her acting career, but Carteaud gave up acting to become a wine producer.[9]
In 1950 Françoise Bornet was given an original print of the photo, bearing Doisneau's signature and stamp, as part of the payment for her "work", and thus her subsequent attempt at litigation in the 1990s was rejected by the court.[3][9] In April 2005 she sold the print at auction for 155,000€ to an unidentified Swiss collector via the Paris auctioneers Artcurial Briest-Poulain-Le Fur.[3][9][13] (from wikipedia)
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