Louis Stettner

Drawing on the humanism of Izis, the sombre moods of Brassaï and the raw street photography of Weegee, Louis Stettner has always put the city at the heart of his work. Since the 1940s, the American photographer has trodden the cobbles of the world’s great capitals, weaving his iconic social tapestries. Always alert to the daily lives of ordinary people, the details of urban life and the struggles of minorities, Stettner had spent a long time on the streets of his native New York before coming to Paris. Today, you can find him around the Puces de Saint-Ouen, going back and forth between the stalls of old photos or strolling along, his eye to the viewfinder, always on the lookout for some incongruous scene. 80 photos by this adopted Parisian, now 90 years old, are displayed at the BNF: look out for his strange and dream-like 1958 series dedicated to New York’s Penn Station, sadly destroyed, and his ‘Manhattan Pastoral’, a striking full colour homage to the Big Apple.