Paris – A Love Story 1948-1952

Before he became a photographer, Todd Webb had been a gold prospector, a forest ranger, a stockbroker, a navy man, and a billing clerk for Chrysler. He brought all of that life history with him when he moved to New York City in 1945 and spent the next four years making stunning photographs of the city's architecture and colorful characters. His work received praise from photography's biggest names—Alfred Stieglitz, Roy Stryker, Edward Steichen, among them—but that never translated into recognition or financial stability. So he figured he'd give Paris a shot. And in early 1949, he set sail. Soon enough he was on the streets of Paris making thoughtful, beautifully composed documentary pictures with his 8 x 10 camera. Webb fell hard for post-war Paris: he loved the intimacy of the city, its small streets and hidden passageways, the peddlers with their pushcarts, the tradesmen. He loved the hand-painted signs on the crumbling facades of building. He loved walking the same streets as Eugène Atget had half a century earlier. Most of all, he loved the light. Webb was making some of the most memorable photographs of his career and he was having the time of his life. He socialized with the great photographers living in Paris—Robert Doisneau, Louis Stettner, and Brassai—and became the man to visit for photographers on assignment from the States, photographers like Robert Frank, Gordon Parks, and John Vachon. The pictures in this book not only show us what Paris looked like 75 years ago, they reveal something of the photographer's inner life as well.