Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville, or The Kiss by the Town Hall, depicts two central characters kissing amid passers-by on the Rue de Rivoli; in the background is the façade of the Paris town hall

It is one of the artist’s most famous photographs, which was commissioned by the American magazine Life and published in the June 1950 issue as part of a feature “L’amour à Paris au printemps”, or “Love in Paris during Springtime”

Story has it that one day when Doisneau was sitting at a café, he noticed a young couple embracing each other a few tables away. Instinctively, the artist approached them and proposed a photo session, with a compensation of 500 francs (the equivalent of 1,460 Euro today)

In the photograph, the young couple appear to be deeply in love, and their embrace (although pre-arranged for the shooting) appears spontaneous and very romantic

The picture disappeared for more than 30 years until it reappeared in 1986, when Life decided to commercialise it in the form of poster, when Le Baiser broke all records by selling 410,000 copies

Doisneau tried to explain: “This photo makes me a bit uneasy: Its success makes the outcome seem easy to achieve. Why do so many people identify them with it? Because it is the symbol of a happy moment”