A prominent group of photographers of the 1950s are often described as the French Humanists. One of them was Robert Doisneau, whose images represented the strength and egalitarianism of their country before World War II. He produced counterfeit passports and documents for the Resistance during the war. Later, as a photojournalist he took his camera into the working-class suburbs to capture prosaic, reassuring images. Among Doisneau’s favorite subjects were street fairs, the carousels and sideshows that moved between city parks and neighborhood squares. Here, a couple visits a street photographer’s booth to have themselves portrayed as airplane passengers over the city. On the left, a woman walking her dog shows that their interlude is rather ordinary.

from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)