As his loving but crisply unsentimental images make evident, Peter Turnley is a clear-eyed descendant of such master French photographers as Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Edouard Boubat; the latter two, in fact, have written brief tributes to him that serve as forewords to this book. That Turnleys work has been inspired by these earlier influences comes as no surprise, for as a young photographer he worked as Doisneaus assistant, and he subsequently became a close friend of Boubat, meeting him "at least once a week for an afternoon glass of rouge and warm conversation." Yet Turnleys work is uniquely his own, rooted in his 25-year affair of the heart with the most beautiful city in the world. A longtime resident of the city, he invites us to share an intimate Paris that outsiders rarely see, giving us seductive glimpses of Paris life as lived on the street, in the Metro, and at countless neighborhood cafes.

Peter Turnley is a contract photographer for Newsweek, where his coverage of the Gulf War, South Africa, Bosnia, Chechnya, and Kosovo has won numerous honors, including the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad. Adam Gopnik is Paris correspondent for The New Yorker and author of a collection of essays entitled Paris to the Moon.