The photographer Pierre Yves-Petit, who called himself 'Yvon', wandered the streets of Paris between the First and Second World Wars looking for the moment when the shifting light and clouds would perfectly reveal the city's ephemeral, iconic beauty. This title presents over one hundred of his images, many made from the glass negatives.

The Parisian love of aimlessly strolling around the city is so great that they have a word for it - the “flaneur” is a wanderer, a gentleman of leisure who opens his senses in order to experience the city to the full. The photographer Pierre Yves-Petit, nicknamed Yvon, was a “flaneur” in Paris between the world wars, and the dramatic, elegant images he made became the most popular postcards in France. Yvon chose startling viewpoints and unusual lighting conditions, photographing the city at sunset, in fog, in the shimmering afterglow of rain and the transforming whiteness of snow. “Yvon's Paris” reproduces over 100 of the photographer's images, recording the magic of Paris at its most photogenic.

Review
"This book contains his [Yvon's] startlingly beautiful black-and-white images of a great city made for strolling..." What's hot in 2010, Time Out

Robert Stevens is a photographic history lecturer at the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography in New York.