When Doisneau reveals the poetry hidden within the real Paris,
Ventura invents a Paris where poetry becomes reality.

Peter Fetterman Gallery, in collaboration with Galerie XII, is pleased to present an exhibition bringing together the work of Robert Doisneau and Paolo Ventura, two artists separated by generations but united by their fascination with Paris and the lives, stories, and mysteries found within its streets.

Doisneau wandered Paris for more than five decades, finding humor, romance, tenderness, and humanity in everyday life. Lovers, children, dogs, workers, artists, and strangers populate a world that moved at a human pace, where curiosity mattered more than convenience. His photographs feel especially profound today, reminding us of the richness found simply by paying attention.

Ventura approaches Paris from another direction entirely. Through works from Le Passe-Murailleand Promenades de nuit, he transforms the city into a place suspended between reality and fiction, memory and dream. Combining photography, painting, collage, constructed sets, and the nineteenth-century tintype process, Ventura creates an imagined Paris of deserted streets, illuminated windows, and unseen lives. 

Together, the two artists offer distinct visions of the same city: one discovered through the unpredictable theater of everyday life, the other reconstructed through memory and imagination.