"I ran with my baguette and the gentleman took his pictures"

Daniela · Jul 22, 2023

"My mother did not believe me"
The little Parisian with his baguette in the streets of Paris is Jean Brosseron. At the time, in 1952, he was 5 years old. He remembers it like it was yesterday. Willy Ronis had asked him to run out of the bakery. "Delighted to be of service and to be interesting, I ran with my baguette. The gentleman took his photos and then I went home. Very proud, I told my mother, but she did not believe me and replied: 'I am the Queen of England'", says, amused, the septuagenarian.

According to Willy Ronis, this shot is the only one for which he asked his model to stage himself. "He immediately turned to the people we meet in the street. The living people who make the life of the city. He was not at all interested in what we call today, people or movie stars, "says Stéphane Kovalsky, grandson of Willy Ronis. (Original article in French: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture...y-ronis-jean-raconte-ce-souvenir_5922371.html )

If you happen to be in the South of France before September '23, you can go see the exhibition at Villa Tamaris Centre d'Art in La Seyne-sur-Mer.

foc · Jul 22, 2023

Thank you for posting this.

I have heard some people mistake this for a Henri Cartier-Bresson photo.

Ballinderry-Michael · Jul 22, 2023

Ronis is one of my top three, along with Kertész and Sander. It's great to see continuing attention being paid to him; and the little video embedded in the article is interesting too. I'd recommend Jean-Claude Gautrand's Willy Ronis: stolen moments/gestohlene Augenblicke/instants dérobés, published by Taschen in 2005. It has a wide selection of his work illustrated. Another good one is Willy Ronis: la vie en passant, published by Prestel in 2004 (it's an exhibition catalogue, with text in just German and English).

As foc said, thank you for posting this.

Daniela · Jul 22, 2023

foc said:
Thank you for posting this.

I have heard some people mistake this for a Henri Cartier-Bresson photo.

You're welcome!
I've been guilty of that mistake

Daniela · Jul 22, 2023

Ballinderry-Michael said:
Ronis is one of my top three, along with Kertész and Sander. It's great to see continuing attention being paid to him; and the little video embedded in the article is interesting too. I'd recommend Jean-Claude Gautrand's Willy Ronis: stolen moments/gestohlene Augenblicke/instants dérobés, published by Taschen in 2005. It has a wide selection of his work illustrated. Another good one is Willy Ronis: la vie en passant, published by Prestel in 2004 (it's an exhibition catalogue, with text in just German and English).

As foc said, thank you for posting this.

You're welcome. Thank you for the recommendations!

Edit to say that I found Stolen moments at the library, so I'll go check it out!

snusmumriken · Jul 23, 2023

I’ve always felt that this was a lesser imitation of what HCB had achieved with his happy small boy carrying bottles. It lacks the spontaneity of HCB’s shot, and I suspected it was staged from the first time I saw it.

Ronis being himself rather than apeing HCB is a different thing altogether. I love the way he chose high vantage points to make landscapes with perfectly positioned people in them. And that famous Nu Provençal is gorgeous. I also enjoy the difference between the privileged perspective of HCB and Ronis’ empathy with the working class.

Ballinderry-Michael · Jul 23, 2023

You're right, Jonathan. I've just been looking at the Taschen book again and Ronis's political and social photographs in the '30s and '40s are the very best. I particularly like a nun embracing a returned prisoner of war (presumably her brother?) in 1945. And a campsite in the late '30s!

snusmumriken · Jul 23, 2023

Ballinderry-Michael said:
You're right, Jonathan. I've just been looking at the Taschen book again and Ronis's political and social photographs in the '30s and '40s are the very best. I particularly like a nun embracing a returned prisoner of war (presumably her brother?) in 1945. And a campsite in the late '30s!

That campsite photo always makes me want to collect my own camping gear together again.

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

snusmumriken said:
I’ve always felt that this was a lesser imitation of what HCB had achieved with his happy small boy carrying bottles. It lacks the spontaneity of HCB’s shot

The baguette boy photo was 1952.
Bresson's wine-bottle boy was 1954.

snusmumriken · Jul 23, 2023

Don_ih said:
The baguette boy photo was 1952.
Bresson's wine-bottle boy was 1954.

Wow!! Thank you! That has shattered my position then, and I apologise for my slur on Ronis … although I still maintain that the HCB shot has in spades what the Ronis shot lacks.

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

snusmumriken said:
the HCB shot has in spades what the Ronis shot lacks.

I wonder what that is? Although, really, I don't see much of a reason to compare them. Would the Bresson photo be as good if the boy had loaves of bread instead of wine?

snusmumriken · Jul 23, 2023

Don_ih said:
I wonder what that is? Although, really, I don't see much of a reason to compare them. Would the Bresson photo be as good if the boy had loaves of bread instead of wine?

Almost, yes.

Ballinderry-Michael · Jul 23, 2023

This is curious: googling <bresson bottle boy> produces lots of references giving 1954. On the other hand, I looked for the photograph in Henri Cartier-Bresson: the man, the image and the world (Thames and Hudson, 2003) and there it is, number 65 on page 70. But its caption reads "Rue Mouffetard, Paris, France, 1952". Room for thought there.

[and later edit: googling <Bresson Mouffetard 1952> brings up several rather authoritative-looking references, mainly dating it 1952 and saying "printed later"]

Daniela · Jul 23, 2023

snusmumriken said:
Almost, yes.

Hehe I find them both equally charming.

This is curious: googling <bresson bottle boy> produces lots of references giving 1954. On the other hand, I looked for the photograph in Henri Cartier-Bresson: the man, the image and the world (Thames and Hudson, 2003) and there it is, number 65 on page 70. But its caption reads "Rue Mouffetard, Paris, France, 1952". Room for thought there.

[and later edit: googling <Bresson Mouffetard 1952> brings up several rather authoritative-looking references, mainly dating it 1952 and saying "printed later"]

Now we need an exact date to settle this!

It is pretty cool to think that both of them were walking the streets at the same time. I'm going on a photo walk tomorrow and I'll certainly be thinking about them

Daniela · Jul 23, 2023

By the way, if you're ever in Paris, you must visit the ~~Bellevue~~/Belleville neighborhood, where there's a beautiful overlook of the city named after Ronis. And the whole neighborhood is an ode to street art. I don't think there's an empty wall anywhere. It's awesome.

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

snusmumriken said:
Almost, yes.

Probably. The full frame of that photo is what makes it good. And the attitude oozing out of the boy (I get the feeling that would be the same even if he was carrying bananas).

Incidentally, the wine boy's name is Michel Gabriel -- it'd be great if he and Jean Brosseron could get together and have some wine and bread....

Rolleiflexible · Jul 23, 2023

Daniela said:
By the way, if you're ever in Paris, you must visit the Bellevue neighborhood, where there's a beautiful overlook of the city named after Ronis. And the whole neighborhood is an ode to street art. I don't think there's an empty wall anywhere. It's awesome.

Daniela, have you ever read Ce jour-là? I just ordered a copy — would be curious to hear your thoughts.

eli griggs · Jul 23, 2023

foc said:
Thank you for posting this.

I have heard some people mistake this for a Henri Cartier-Bresson photo.

Ditto.

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

Also about the Bresson photo, apparently the bottles contained rainwater - which would explain why the bottles have been recorked.

Ballinderry-Michael · Jul 23, 2023

Rolleiflexible said:
Daniela, have you ever read Ce jour-là? I just ordered a copy — would be curious to hear your thoughts.

Thank you, Rolleiflexible. I have one coming now (loads of copies on abebooks). Hope it won't be too beat-up.

Back on the subject of the Nu Provençal, I looked at my copy of Ronis's Derrière l'objectif and found this interesting double-page spread with his account of it. I'm sorry that I can't scan the book - the rather poor photo will have to do as it simply can't lie flat.

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

Ballinderry-Michael said:
his account of it

"We had a little stone cottage at Gordes. It was a hot summer, and I was repairing the attic. I needed a trowel, so I came down and there was Marie-Anne standing naked on the stone flags, washing herself from the tin basin. ‘Don’t move,’ I said and, my hands full of plaster, I grabbed my Rolleiflex and took four shots. It was the second shot which I chose.
It took two minutes in all. Miracles exist, I experienced it. I have never been so anxious as when I developed that film. I felt that, if the image was good, technically and aesthetically, it would be a major moment in my life, a prosaic moment of extraordinary poetry.”

snusmumriken · Jul 23, 2023

Don_ih said:
Also about the Bresson photo, apparently the bottles contained rainwater - which would explain why the bottles have been recorked.

View attachment 344644

Was he perhaps speaking figuratively - ie “The child is innocent” - and not necessarily truthfully? This is HCB we are talking about, after all…

Sirius Glass · Jul 23, 2023

Daniela said:
View attachment 344562

"My mother did not believe me"
The little Parisian with his baguette in the streets of Paris is Jean Brosseron. At the time, in 1952, he was 5 years old. He remembers it like it was yesterday. Willy Ronis had asked him to run out of the bakery. "Delighted to be of service and to be interesting, I ran with my baguette. The gentleman took his photos and then I went home. Very proud, I told my mother, but she did not believe me and replied: 'I am the Queen of England'", says, amused, the septuagenarian.

According to Willy Ronis, this shot is the only one for which he asked his model to stage himself. "He immediately turned to the people we meet in the street. The living people who make the life of the city. He was not at all interested in what we call today, people or movie stars, "says Stéphane Kovalsky, grandson of Willy Ronis. (Original article in French: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture...y-ronis-jean-raconte-ce-souvenir_5922371.html )

If you happen to be in the South of France before September '23, you can go see the exhibition at Villa Tamaris Centre d'Art in La Seyne-sur-Mer.

Thank you for posting this so that it can be seen by many more people.

Ballinderry-Michael · Jul 23, 2023

Don_ih said:
Also about the Bresson photo, apparently the bottles contained rainwater - which would explain why the bottles have been recorked.

View attachment 344644

Don, I spent a month in my father's flat in Fontainebleau in 1969 aged 16. The way you got cheap wine then was to take empty bottles to the Prisunic where they refilled and corked them for you. Maybe the wee boy was playing at doing just that?

[just noticed that your translation of Ronis's account must be from a slightly different original from that in the book, where he says at the end that the photograph is his "mascot", so to speak and has never stopped being shown]

Don_ih · Jul 23, 2023

Ballinderry-Michael said:
your translation of Ronis's account must be from a slightly different original from that in the book

Yes - it's from a webpage that didn't reference where it came from

As for the wine - that completely makes sense. When my mother was young, everything went to the store in barrels and you brought your own container. Yet Bresson annotated the photo with the caption that the bottles contained water. But maybe he was being as @snusmumriken suggested.

"I ran with my baguette and the gentleman took his pictures"

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