His photographs once adorned the walls of student residences everywhere but now on the centenary of his birth, 14 April, Robert Doisneau, the French photographer, is himself the latest subject of Google's homepage, the Google doodle.

Doisneau was born on 14 April 1912 and is best known for the photograph, "The Kiss by the Town Hall" in which in a young couple, oblivious to the bustle around them kiss. The photograph, which has the Paris town hall in the back ground and the tables of a cafe in the foreground, has been reproduced on cards and posters.

It was first published in Life magazine in 1950 and Doisneau allowed people to think that it was not a staged photograph. One couple, believing they were featured kissing in the photograph, sued the photographer. In court, Doisneau revealed that it was another couple who he had seen kissing and then asked them to model for him. He then took them to a series of locations in Paris. The couple who wrongly believed they were in the photograph lost their claim.

Doisneau's speciality was street photos and he avoided fashion or other forms of reportage. He was awarded a series of prizes for his work and he died in 1994.