Milestones

DIED. ROBERT DOISNEAU, 81, photographer; in Paris. The postwar Paris captured by the lens of Doisneau's camera was the Paris of young lovers stealing an ! embrace, American soldiers roughhousing around the City of Light, two bearded compatriots excitedly greeting each other with kissed cheeks -- in short, the Paris of one's dreams, rendered with both satire and great affection. Parisian-born, Doisneau began his career as a photographer while in his 20s, lending his talents to the Resistance during the Nazi Occupation. He achieved prominence as a fashion photographer after the war and international recognition with his portraits of the "little drama in everyday life." Yet there was some stagecraft behind those supposedly candid moments: in a legal dispute last year, Doisneau acknowledged that he had paid two models to pose for his famous The Kiss at the Hotel de Ville. Whether that detracts from its perfect evocation of a certain time, a certain place, a certain sensibility is in the eye of the beholder.