Artist Bio
Louise Massis is a French photographer based in Marseille, surrounded by the Mediterranean, its waves, and seagulls. She began photography as a self-taught photographer during her teenage years, taking travel photographs and portraits of friends, and has since made photography her primary artistic practice. She is also a poet, and her aesthetic exploration draws inspiration from the poetry of everyday life, the often-feminine body viewed as a landscape, and the Mediterranean atmosphere. She is particularly drawn to photographing Marseille and its incongruous scenes, working at the intersection of street and editorial photography.
Statement
UNDER THE BEACH UMBRELLAS
Under the beach umbrellas Is a photographic series that explores the everyday atmosphere of the Mediterranean through these symbols. Each image captures a fragment of this Mediterranean atmosphere: the dazzling blue of the sea, the warmth of the sun, the textures of the sandy pebbles, the stripes of the canopies, the silhouettes that appear and disappear beneath the beach umbrellas—which become anchor points in the middle of the beach, ephemeral refuges that speak of camaraderie, anticipation, rest, and the passing of summer. They also reveal bodies lying at ease—bodies sometimes marginalized in society—that dare to reveal themselves under the sun.
Straddling the line between documentary and poetic vision, this series, shot between Marseille and Italy, celebrates the aesthetics of everyday life and invites us to contemplate a landscape as much as a way of life, characterized by slowness, sharing, and an intimate relationship between people, the sea, and the sun.
