--- title: Paris Photographs: Black and White Pictures of the City of Light, 1946 description: In the winter of 1946, like countless others before him, LIFE photographer Ed Clark fell under the spell cast by the gorgeous city of Paris. canonical: https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-27T17:11:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:39.985Z og:title: Paris Photographs: Black and White Pictures of the City of Light, 1946 og:description: In the winter of 1946, like countless others before him, LIFE photographer Ed Clark fell under the spell cast by the gorgeous city of Paris. og:url: https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60765f8030d6aa57/69884ae1e20a878e45a8ace7/131121-paris-1946-concierege-13.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Paris 1946 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paris Photographs: Black and White Pictures of the City of Light, 1946 twitter:description: In the winter of 1946, like countless others before him, LIFE photographer Ed Clark fell under the spell cast by the gorgeous city of Paris. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60765f8030d6aa57/69884ae1e20a878e45a8ace7/131121-paris-1946-concierege-13.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paris Unadorned: Black and White Portraits of the City of Light, 1946 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 27, 2014 5:11 PM UTC  Scene on the Seine, 1946. Scene on the Seine, 1946.Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jun 27, 2014 5:11 PM UTC In early 1946, photographer Ed Clark journeyed to Paris (“the grand courtesan of all cities,” LIFE called the ancient town) to record the look and the feel of the French capital less than a year after the end of the Second World War. The pictures he made there chronicle not the cheerful, bawdy Paris of the popular imagination, but a place that, as LIFE told its readers, was a “grim and depressing disappointment” for any visitors expecting the Paris of Maxim’s, the Ritz, The Folies Bergère, the Moulin Rouge and the city’s other legendary, libidinous diversions. The Parisians themselves, meanwhile, were “cold, hungry, confused and tired—above all, tired—too busy keeping themselves alive to bother much about entertaining. . . . \[The typical American GI in Paris at the time\] felt cheated. Where was the Paris he had heard about? Where were the naked women?” --- > “” --- For his part, like countless travelers before him through the centuries, Ed Clark fell under the spell cast by the great, gorgeous city. In fact, the Tennessee native once claimed that, at the time he got the assignment, “I didn’t know where France was, let alone Paris.” But when he came upon a young painter in Montmartre (slide #6 in this gallery—Clark’s own favorite photo from his entire career), he found it “so beautiful that I just started shooting.”  March 13, 2012\. Unemployed Indians hand in their forms to register at the Employment Exchange Office in Allahabad, India. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  View along Quai du Louvre (today Quai François Mitterrand) down the Seine toward Ponte Des Arts with the Eiffel Tower in the distance, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  View of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A barge churns up the Seine past Notre Dame on a gloomy winter day in 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A man exits a Paris Metro station, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The Arc de Triomphe, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A young artist paints Sacré-Coeur from the ancient Rue Norvins in Montmartre, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Moulin de la Galette, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Paris' famed stalls along the Seine, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  View across the Pont Alexandre III bridge toward the Grand Palace, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A small sister of the Statue of Liberty beside the Seine, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Paris street scene, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Near the Pont Neuf steps, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Scene on the Seine, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Parisian flower vendor on the banks of the Seine, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Pont Alexandre III bridge, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Conciergerie, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Rowboats on the banks of the Seine, Paris, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  View of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Coeur, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Montmartre cemetery, Paris, winter 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Passerelle Debilly bridge on a foggy winter day with the Eiffel Tower in the background, 1946. Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/"},"headline":"Paris Unadorned: Black and White Portraits of the City of Light, 1946","datePublished":"2014-06-27T17:11:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:39.985Z","description":"In the winter of 1946, like countless travelers before him through the centuries, LIFE photographer Ed Clark fell under the spell cast by the great, gorgeous city of Paris.","url":"https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/","keywords":["Culture","photography","paris","1946","Eiffel Tower","Notre Dame","Great Places"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60765f8030d6aa57/69884ae1e20a878e45a8ace7/131121-paris-1946-concierege-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60765f8030d6aa57/69884ae1e20a878e45a8ace7/131121-paris-1946-concierege-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Paris 1946","caption":"Scene on the Seine, 1946.","creditText":"Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/culture/","name":"Culture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3880290/paris-photographs-black-and-white-pictures-of-the-city-of-light-1946/","name":"Paris Unadorned: Black and White Portraits of the City of Light, 1946"}}]}] ```