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DANY GIGNOUX BIOGRAPHY

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Dany Gignoux at the Bal masqué de l'AMR, Geneva 1987


Born in Geneva in 1944, Dany Gignoux developed a humanistic view of the world right from the end of her studies. She took to the road, became interested in distant cultures and worked for a time for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where she filed photographs in the documentation department. Photography, the principles of which she learned on her own, became her passion, and then very quickly her profession.


Montée à l'alpage, vers Furgglenalp

1976 – Dany GIGNOUX

Camp de réfugiés, Ethiopie

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX


The Swiss photojournalist Max Vaterlaus opened the doors of his studio to her and helped her to land her first contracts. She worked with press agencies and did a lot of sports and cultural reporting all over the world: regattas on the Isle of Wight, spiritualism in Brazil, religion and cafés in Portugal and Spain, Swiss folklore, Brittany lighthouses... She also renewed her relationship with the ICRC, for which she carried out missions in Ethiopia and Chad.

Dany Gignoux at Montreux Jazz Festival

Duke Ellington, Montreux

1970 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

Dizzy Gillespie, Montreux

1975 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 620.–

Manu Dibango, Montreux

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 390.–

Between the 70s and the early 2000s, she took several thousand photographs of musicians, mainly in black and white.

Ella Fitzgerald, Montreux

1969 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 420.–

Stan Getz, Montreux

1977 – Dany GIGNOUX

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Sarah Vaughan, Montreux

1976 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 420.–

At Paléo Festival Nyon

Claude Nougaro, Nyon

1975 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

Richie Havens, Nyon

1978 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 390.–

Salif Keïta, Nyon

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 290.–

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Nyon

1981 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 110.–

Charlélie Couture, Nyon

1984 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

Joe Cocker, Nyon

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 240.–

Jacques Higelin, Lausanne

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 105.–

Rory Gallagher, Nyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 560.–

The Cure, Nyon

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Gil Evans...

Dany Gignoux's FRIENDS.

among many others.

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 390.–

Miles Davis, Lyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

Gil Evans, Italy

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

James Brown, Montreux

1981 – Dany GIGNOUX

Bob Dylan, Basel

1984 – Dany GIGNOUX

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David Bowie, Lyon

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 430.–

Bernard Lavilliers, Geneva

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

Serge Gainsbourg, Bourges

1986 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

Keith Jarrett, Lugano

1986 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

Archie Shepp, Geneva

1994 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 280.–

Elvin Jones, Geneva

1981 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 170.–

She became friends with many musicians, who valued her discretion and her respectful eye, which went straight to the essential. She went on tour with Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Claude Nougaro and Dizzy Gillespie. They eventually got so used to her that they let her shoot as she pleased. Two beautiful books, one devoted to Nougaro, the other one to Gillespie, based on the work of several decades, testify to this extraordinary connivance between the photographer and the musicians. Dizzy, the legendary bebop trumpeter, is literally captured from every angle: trying on African stage clothes, talking to Parisian road workers at dawn, playing cards with a hotel employee, phoning his wife daily, joking with his musicians... and even taking a pee break on the roadside! When viewed in the light of this intimacy developed backstage, the concert photos take on another dimension, conveying a unique complicity: the photographer's gaze allows her to penetrate to the very heart of the spontaneous musical creation that takes place on stage, in front of her lens.

Miles Davis, Montreux

1985 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

Claude Nougaro, Paziols

2002 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 190.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 270.–

A vast legacy that puts Dany Gignoux in a class of her own: she shows like few other photographers that jazz is as much an art of living as a musical expression. Far from the glossy elegance of Herman Leonard, the famous "eye of jazz", or the flamboyant dramatics of Francis Wolff, the producer of Blue Note Records who immortalised dozens of recording sessions for the label, Dany Gignoux's approach is above all intimate, spontaneous and personal. She takes the time to follow the musicians on tour, to get to know them, lingering on a detail, a gesture, preferring an almost documentary approach to glamorous poses.

Gil Evans, Italy

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 65.–


This is so true that the musician himself sometimes disappears from the picture in favour of an object that is associated with him, as shown by these close-ups of Gil Evans' legendary moccasins or the ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts of saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (who would die of lung cancer)…

Jimmy Lyons, Nyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 150.–

Graeme Allwright, Nyon

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 240.–

Gilberto Gil, Nyon

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 430.–

Hermeto Pascoal, Rio de Janeiro - Jabour

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 240.–

Chick Corea, Montreux

1981 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 290.–