Willy Ronis curated and commentated on the iconic images featured in this beautiful volume that retraces his career and contributions to photography and photojournalism.

A key figure in twentieth-century photography, Willy Ronis conveyed the poetic reality of postwar Paris and Provence in iconic black-and-white photographs. Influenced by Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams, and amicable with his contemporary Magnum photographers, Ronis was the first French photographer to contribute to Life magazine. In the 1950s, MoMA curator Edward Steichen featured Ronis — along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Brassaï — in the groundbreaking exhibitions The Family of Man and Five French Photographers.

Throughout his life, this powerhouse of humanist photography kept meticulous records of his work, curating each era into albums, which are reproduced here for the first time. Timeless photographs of postwar France and its inhabitants are accompanied by the photographer’s original observations and comments, framing the images within their technical and historical context. Photography historian Matthieu Rivallin’s critical perspective adds nuance to the photographer’s notes, and the ensemble is a groundbreaking and definitive reference on the myriad aspects of the artists’ immense career and an essential volume for all photography aficionados.

About the Author:

Major twentieth-century photographer Willy Ronis (1910–2009) contributed to Life, Vogue, and Time, and he received numerous international awards. Exhibition curator and author Matthieu Rivallin manages the twentieth-century-photography archives at the Mediathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris.

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Les petits miracles de la vie

One of the great chroniclers of Parisian life in the 20th century

Produced in close cooperation with Willy Ronis and featuring images from his archives, this book traces the career of one of France’s most remarkable photographers, to whom, along with Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, and Brassaï, we owe our romantic vision of France. In Ronis’s photos of Paris, the city is inseparable from the working class men, women, and children who inhabit its streets and cafes. He once described his approach to photography in five words: "patience, thinking, chance, form, and time." Working with available light, Ronis sought to capture the fleeting moments of everyday life, and his body of work documents, with timeless beauty and grace, the feel of French life in the 20th century.

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 historian, journalist and critic, with numerous publications. He is the author of the TASCHEN books Paris mon amour (1999), Doisneau (2003), Brassaï (2004) and Ronis (2005).