Dany Gignoux at the Bal masqué de l'AMR, Geneva 1987
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.
1976 – Dany GIGNOUX
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.
1970 – Dany GIGNOUX
Sold1975 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 620.–
1985 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 390.–
1969 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 420.–
1977 – Dany GIGNOUX
Sold1976 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 420.–
1975 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 330.–
1978 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 390.–
1990 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 290.–
1981 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 110.–
1984 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 270.–
1989 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 240.–
1989 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 105.–
1983 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 560.–
1985 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 270.–
among many others.
1990 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 390.–
1983 – Dany GIGNOUX
Sold1987 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 330.–
1981 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 230.–
In the course of concerts and festivals, the stars of pop, rock, funk, world music and French chanson passed before her lens: Joan Baez, Alain Bashung, David Bowie, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg, Bernard Lavilliers, Claude Nougaro…
1984 – Dany GIGNOUX
Sold1987 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 430.–
1987 – Dany GIGNOUX
1986 – Dany GIGNOUX
SoldAbove all, she rubs shoulders with the jazz elite, a genre she is particularly fond of: Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Keith Jarrett, Elvin Jones, Joe Lovano, Hermeto Pascoal, Oscar Peterson, Michel Petrucciani, Archie Shepp, Nina Simone, Cecil Taylor, Sarah Vaughan…
1986 – Dany GIGNOUX
Sold1994 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 280.–
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.
1985 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 330.–
2002 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 190.–
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.
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)…
1983 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 150.–
1983 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 240.–
1987 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 430.–
1987 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 240.–
Text by Luca Sabbatini, freelance journalist © Galerie 1 2 3 / 2022
All photographs by Dany Gignoux are protected by copyright:
© Dany Gignoux / Centre d'Iconographie, Bibliothèque de Genève >
1981 – Dany GIGNOUX
CHF 290.–