"Nowadays people's visual imagination is so much more sophisticated, so much more developed, particularly in young people, that now you can make an image which just slightly suggests something, they can make of it what they will"
About this Quote
Doisneau is giving away a quiet secret about why his photographs feel so alive: the real engine is the viewer. The line reads like a compliment to modern audiences, but it also carries a mischievous shift in authorial power. Instead of the photographer delivering a complete, closed meaning, he’s arguing for the potency of the “slight suggestion” - an image that withholds just enough to trigger projection. In other words, sophistication isn’t only sharper eyesight; it’s a trained readiness to collaborate, to complete the scene with your own narrative.
The context matters. Doisneau’s humanist street photography (postwar Paris, everyday romance, small comedy) thrives on moments that look accidental but feel authored. He’s talking about a culture increasingly fluent in visual codes: cinema grammar, advertising shorthand, magazine spreads. Young people, especially, grow up learning to read images at speed, picking up cues the way earlier generations learned to parse long novels. That literacy changes what an image can do. Subtlety becomes efficient.
There’s a second edge here: “they can make of it what they will” is both liberation and loss of control. The photographer becomes less a lecturer and more a setter of traps, planting an ambiguity that viewers spring with their own assumptions. Doisneau’s intent is almost democratic - meaning isn’t imposed, it’s negotiated - but he’s also acknowledging a modern condition where images circulate beyond their maker, and interpretation turns into a kind of public property.
The context matters. Doisneau’s humanist street photography (postwar Paris, everyday romance, small comedy) thrives on moments that look accidental but feel authored. He’s talking about a culture increasingly fluent in visual codes: cinema grammar, advertising shorthand, magazine spreads. Young people, especially, grow up learning to read images at speed, picking up cues the way earlier generations learned to parse long novels. That literacy changes what an image can do. Subtlety becomes efficient.
There’s a second edge here: “they can make of it what they will” is both liberation and loss of control. The photographer becomes less a lecturer and more a setter of traps, planting an ambiguity that viewers spring with their own assumptions. Doisneau’s intent is almost democratic - meaning isn’t imposed, it’s negotiated - but he’s also acknowledging a modern condition where images circulate beyond their maker, and interpretation turns into a kind of public property.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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