Oscar Marzaroli

Who was Oscar Marzaroli?

Oscar Marzaroli was an Italian-born Scottish photographer of post-World War II urban Scotland. He was born in Castiglione Vara in northwest Italy and came to Scotland with his family at the age of two.

Marzaroli had a career in photojournalism in London and Stockholm. But he also operated as a photographer on the streets of Glasgow and became famed for his iconic images of the city in the 1960s. He was best known for his images of the Gorbals area as the bulldozers cleared away the streets of the run down tenements. Marzaroli's work came to national attention in the 1980s with the publication of three collections of his photographs by the Edinburgh publishing house Mainstream. He was also a film cameraman, as well as director and producer, for Ogam Films, which he founded with three friends in 1967.

In 1991, a number of Glaswegian musicians came together to help compile a tribute album entitled The Tree and the Bird and the Fish and the Bell. The rock band Deacon Blue, who contributed to the album, had already extensively used Marzaroli's photographs on their album and single covers. In the same year Marzaroli was also the subject of an ITV documentary.