Second Looks: Recent Street Photography

SECOND LOOK AT STREET SNAPS OF KENT COASTAL TOWN IN GLASGOW

In October 2020, singer Marianne Dissard found herself in Kent with her touring cancelled and a long winter ahead.

With a backdrop of the pandemic, the French-born chanteuse turned to a new practice, street photography, to make sense of her immediate world.

Over the course of the next six months, Dissard went on to assemble a clear-sighted snapshot of post-Brexit life in the corner of England's southeast coast she called home.

Her street photographs include surreal urban landscapes, a decimated high street, and striking portraits of residents.

Born in the French Pyrénées, Dissard lived in Tucson, Arizona, for three decades before moving to the UK in 2017. She relocated from Kent to Glasgow in early 2022, and from Glasgow to Coatbridge in 2023.

The multi-talented artist is now set to present a second solo exhibition in Glasgow after last year's 'On A Good Day You Can See France', her multimedia installation and live arts summer series funded by Creative Scotland.

Says Dissard, "I come from the performance stage and, when I started sharing my photography two years ago, naturally gravitated toward creating massive installations and site-specific multimedia 'happenings'. After last year's immersive installation at The Glasgow Gallery of Photography though, I wanted to let the photos do all the talking this time, to get out of their way so to speak. Thanks to SaltSpace, this exhibition is a chance to give my split-second snaps a second 'naked' look, for a few quick days."

Second Looks: Recent Street Photography by Marianne Dissard opens on Wednesday 21 June at SaltSpace Co-operative Gallery on Washington Street and runs until Tuesday 27 June, 11am to 6pm daily. Opening reception 21 June, 6-8pm.

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https://www.saltspacecoop.co.uk

www.mariannedissard.com

https://www.facebook.com/mariannedissard

https://www.instagram.com/marianne.dissard

About SaltSpace Co-operative:

SaltSpace is a creative co-operative based in Glasgow that aims to provide a supportive platform for emerging artists and new graduates, as a stepping-stone into their artistic career. It operates a gallery, studios, and cinema space in the Axiom Building in central Glasgow.

About Marianne Dissard:

After a degree in film production from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, French-born Marianne Dissard moved to Tucson, Arizona, initially pursuing a career as a documentary film director. Encouraged by Calexico's Joey Burns to sing, she recorded several albums of original music in Tucson (her first, L'entredeux, composed by Burns himself) with members of Giant Sand, XIXA, Calexico, and Orkesta Mendoza, which she toured worldwide.

Her latest album, Rappel*le, was released in April 2023 and produced with English musician Raphael Mann.

Her debut memoir, Not Me, published in 2019, was adapted for the stage. When its touring was cancelled in 2020, Dissard changed tack, bought a small digital camera, and set out to record the pandemic in her adopted hometown of Ramsgate in Kent.

About Marianne Dissard's photography:

Marianne works with a documentary eye. Her sensitivity to the quirks of the human body in motion stems from her experience of stage performance and collaborations with contemporary choreographers. Her decade working as a documentary filmmaker keeps her alert to our shared narratives. With an innate sense of the absurd and surreal, Dissard makes arresting scenes of the mundane. She is deeply influenced by the photography of Garry Winogrand, Stanley Kubrick, and Henri Alekan.

Working primarily outdoors, Marianne is currently photographing in Knightsbridge, London, a series originally intended as background visuals for her new stage production inspired by Joanna Hogg's 'The Souvenir, Part 1' and commissioned by Volkstheater, Vienna. The series will premiere as a High Street installation in Ramsgate in August 2023 for Ramsgate Festival of Sound.

Her work has been exhibited at Turner Contemporary in Margate (2021 Open group show), at the Laurent Delaye Gallery in Ramsgate (fall 2021), in solo shows in Paris, France (Louxor Cinema Salon, winter 2022) and Glasgow (The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, summer 2022), and as a large-scale outdoor public installation in Ramsgate in summer 2021 for Ramsgate Festival of Sound. Four large metal prints remain on permanent display at Ramsgate Harbour and Ramsgate Music Hall. She has published two books of photography.

About Marianne Dissard's music:

“An eccentric character who releases very fine and wonderful records, in fact so eccentric she once toured the French Pyrénées on foot with a donkey” - Marc Riley, BBC6

Bandcamp:

https://mariannedissard.bandcamp.com/album/cibola-gold-best-of-2008-2015-2016

YouTube: The One and Only (2010)

https://youtu.be/jbHcICO-1o0

YouTube: If I Needed You - Townes Van Zandt cover (2021)

https://youtu.be/yrZ20BWzGXk