Parisians

As his affectionate but crisply unsentimental images of Paris and Parisians make evident, Peter Turnley is a clear-eyed descendant of such master French photographers as Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Edouard Boubat. That Turnley's work has been inspired by these earlier influences comes as no surprise, for as a young photographer he worked as Doisneau's assistant, and he subsequently became a close friend of Boubat, meeting him "at least once a week for an afternoon glass of rouge and warm conversation". Turnley's work is nonetheless uniquely his own, rooted in his twenty-five-year affair of the heart with the most beautiful city in the world. It is a city that offers him not only beauty but also a cherished haven from the wrenching horrors of war and upheaval that he documents in the course of his career as a photojournalist. His photos give us seductive glimpses of Paris life as lived on the street, in the Metro, and at countless neighborhood cafes -- an intimate Paris that outsiders rarely see.