This course aims to introduce students to the different arrondissements of the city of Paris and its immediate suburbs, their most unusual and secret aspects but also the most mundane by immersing them in the worlds of Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, Atget, Kertész, Miller, Weiss, Lartigue, Newton, Klein, and other photographers. Tender and nostalgic icons of the popular Paris of Doisneau, darker and ambiguous visions of the nocturnal Paris of Brassaï and Kertész, historical representations of major events such as the Second World War or May 68, ideological images linked to the French colonial Empire and to decolonial movements, more modern images of Paris and its diverse and multicultural suburbs, images of photojournalism from the 2015 attacks...: these multiple and contradictory facets will encourage students to explore the city, to immerse themselves in its history and diverse culture. Through the photographs of these artists as well as literary or critical texts, students will discover the intimate faces of Parisians, their gestures, their habits, their values, their dreams, their disappointments, their fears. Students will measure the impact of the major historical events of the 20th century on their lives and will analyze urban transformations from the end of the 19th century to the present day.
