Photographs of Paris by Pierre-Yves Petit aka ‘Yvon’ (1920)

Born in Bordeaux in 1886, Jean Pierre Yves Petit moved to the French capital as a young man; there he parlayed a childhood passion for photography into a job at the august culture magazine L’Illustration. Adopting the pen name Yvon (to avoid confusion with a popular portrait photographer named Pierre Petit), he published his first photo essay in 1919: “Ciels et Reflets de Paris” (“Skies and Reflections of Paris”), a series of six melancholy cityscapes in which overcast skies played a starring role (source).

Background by by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920 via

Gargoyles on Notre Dame by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920 via

Scene from Paris by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920s via

Scene from Paris by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920s via

Scene from Paris by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920s via

Le jardin du Palais Royal à Paris by Pierre-Yves Petit (Yvon), 1920 via