Harry Gruyaert

Harry Gruyaert (born 1941) is a photographer known for his images of India, Morocco and Egypt as well as of the west of Ireland[1] and for his use of colour.[2][3][4] He is a member of Magnum Photos.[5] His work has been published in a number of books, been exhibited widely and won the Kodak Prize.[6]

Life and work

Gruyaert was born in 1941 in Antwerp, Belgium. He studied at the School for Photo and Cinema in Brussels from 1959 to 1962.[7] He began freelance work in Paris, while working as a director of photography for Flemish television.[7]

In 1969 Gruyaert made his first trip to Morocco.[7] The resulting work won him the Kodak Prize in 1976[6] and was published in the book Morocco in 1990. He travelled to India for the first time in 1976 and to Egypt in 1987.[7]

In 1972 he photographed the Summer Olympic Games in Munich and the first Apollo flights as they were shown on a television set.[8][9] This series, TV Shots, was first exhibited at the Delpire Gallery in 1974[10] and later elsewhere. It was published as a book in 2007.

Gruyaert joined Magnum Photos in 1982 and became a full member in 1986.[11]

Innovation and reception

Gruyaert was experimenting with Kodachrome colour film for his documentary work in the late 1960s, contemporary with work by Ernst Haas,William Eggleston and Joel Meyerwitz touted by US commentators as 'The New Color',[12][13] though after that of other Americans Saul Leiter, Gordon Parks and Vivian Maier in the 1950s. With Alex Webb, he was one of the first in the Magnum agency to shoot entirely in colour when he was invited to join in 1982.[14][2]

Wilco Versteeg, in reviewing his work in 2018 writes that;

"Harry Gruyaert’s intuitive and candid color work was not always understood in a world that looked skeptically at anything smacking of "street photography" and equated black-and-white photography with serious artistry well into the 1980s. He is now under renewed consideration as one of Europe’s most important photographers…No matter where he turns his eye, his work attests to a constant exploration of the potentialities of color in seemingly colorless urban environments.

"Gruyaert eschews anthropological pretensions. Mirroring surfaces and windows are abundant [and] attest to Gruyaert's self-subjected distance, while nonetheless situating the photographer as observer and frame-giver – the quintessential flâneur. Rather than explicating large political or societal issues through his work, he prefers to speak about the contradictions of reality through the quality of light, color, and contrast.

"Whether Gruyaert roams the streets of Antwerp, Las Vegas, Moscow, or Paris, it is not the need to document thatt drives him, bul his appetite for interpretation. He directs us toward the unsung joys and tragedies of realities that upon first observation seem barren and empty, but in fact are structured through colored planes and details."[15]

Publications

Publications by Gruyaert
  • Lumières Blanches. Paris: Centre national de la photographie, 1986. ISBN 9782867540301. Introduction by Alain Macaire and text by Richard Nonas, translated into English by Brice Matthieussent. Published on the occasion of the Gruyaert exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, 24 April–9 June 1986.
  • Morocco
    • Morocco. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1990. ISBN 9783888143922. With an interview by Brice Matthieussent.
    • Marruecos. Seville: Fundación de las Tres Culturas, 2009. ISBN 9788493628284. Text in English, French and Spanish, by Gerardo Ruiz-Rico Ruiz and Brice Mathieussent, translated by Francis Merino and Meriem Abdelaziz.
    • Maroc. Paris: Textuel, 2013. ISBN 978-2845974784.
  • Made in Belgium. Paris: Nathan/Delpire, 2000. ISBN 9782851072016. Text by Hugo Claus, in Flemish and French.
  • Rivages
    • Paris: Textuel, 2003. ISBN 978-2845970908. Preface by Charles-Arthur Boyer.
    • Paris: Textuel, 2008.
  • Harry Gruyaert. Photo Poche series. Arles, France: Actes Sud, 2006. ISBN 978-2742761760.
  • TV Shots. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007. ISBN 978-3865213754. With a text by Jean-Philippe Toussaint.
  • Harry Gruyaert: Edges. Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt, 2009. ISBN 978-9053306161. Edited and with preface by Charles-Arthur Boyer.
  • Moscow 1989-2009. Paris: Be-Pôles, 2010. ISBN 9782917004128. Text in French and English.
  • Roots. Paris: Xavier Barral, 2012. ISBN 978-2365110235.
  • Irish Summers. Gallery 51, 2020. ISBN 978-9463883245. Work made in Ireland between 1983 and 1984.

Publications with others
  • Way to Gods: Magunamu Foto: Kumano kodō, Santiago e no michi (WAY to GODS　マグナム フォト　熊野古道 サンティアゴへの道), ed. Nagasaka Yoshimitsu (永坂嘉光). Tokyo: Kawade Kobō Shinsha, 1999. ISBN 4-309-90293-6. (in Japanese) (Additional title on front cover: Ancient Kumano Roads and Roads to Santiago.) Contains photographs of Camino de Santiago by Gruyaert and Peter Marlow, and of Kumano kodō by Marlow, Elliott Erwitt and Chris Steele-Perkins.
  • Nord-pas-de-Calais Picardie. Paris: National Geographic, 2004. ISBN 978-2845821385. Photographs by Gruyaert, French-language text by Marie Desplechin.
  • Tour Granite. Paris: Xavier Barral, 2009. ISBN 978-2915173345. Photographs by Gruyaert and Jean Gaumy, text by Éric Reinhardt.
  • McLaren, Stephen, (editor.); Magnum Photos (2019), Magnum streetwise : the ultimate collection of street photography, Thames and Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-54507-2CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions with others

Award
  • 1976: Winner, Kodak Prize.[6]

Collections

Gruyaert's work is held in the following permanent collections:

References
  1. O'Hagan, Sean (7 November 2012). "Henri Cartier-Bresson: who can beat the master of monochrome?". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  2. Lennon, Peter (31 July 2003). "Magnum force". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2014. The last philosophical crisis for Magnum was the acceptance of colour. "Traditionally we are black and white," [Thomas] Hoepker says. "It was never a policy not to accept colour photographers. But acceptance came rather late and reluctantly. I am absolutely in favour. I am a colour photographer. The market called for colour and of course we have a few great colour photographers. There is Alex Webb [American], Gruyaert [Belgian] and Martin Parr [British]."
  3. "Harry Gruyaert's best photograph – waiting for a Belgian parade", The Guardian. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  4. "Photography: The camera reveals the essence of India", The Independent. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  5. Adams, Tim (18 November 2007). "Shooting stars of Magnum light up one another". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  6. "Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique: Liste des lauréats ", Kodak. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  7. "Harry Gruyaert: Belgian b. 1941", Magnum Photos. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  8. "Book - TV Shots", Magnum Photos. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  9. Flückiger, Barbara (2012). 'Materialmix als ästhetisches und expressives Konzept'. In: Tröhler, Margrit; Schweinitz, Jörg; Brunner, Philipp. Filmische Athmosphären. Marburg: Schüren, 73-90.
  10. "Harry Gruyaert TV Shots 1 September - 2 October Cologne ", Phillips (auctioneers). Accessed 29 August 2014.
  11. "Harry Gruyaert", Magnum Photos. Accessed 2010-01-21.
  12. Weinberg, Adam D. (1986). On the line : the new color photojournalism. Walker Art Center. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center. ISBN 0-935640-20-7. OCLC 13711880.
  13. Eauclaire, Sally. (1981). The new color photography. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-190-5. OCLC 7903856.
  14. McLaren, Stephen, (editor.); Magnum Photos (2019), Magnum streetwise : the ultimate collection of street photography, Thames and Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-54507-2CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  15. Wilco Versteeg, ‘Harry Gruyaert: Roots and East-West’ The PhotoBook Review 014, spring 2018, republished in Aperture February 12, 2020
  16. "Harry Gruyaert installation", Canon. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  17. "Mockba 1989-2009", Moscow Biennale. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  18. "Harry Gruyaert - Roots", Le Botanique. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  19. Davies, Lucy (23 Jun 2015). "Harry Gruyaert: 'I discovered how to see'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  20. Dewever, Ilse. "Dit zijn de 10 culturele toppers van deze week". Gazet van Antwerpen (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  21. "TV Shots: Photo Murals by Harry Gruyaert and Charles Goossens", International Center of Photography. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  22. "Magnum's Harry Gruyaert on Henri Cartier-Bresson", Phaidon Press. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  23. "Henri Cartier-Bresson photo rarities go on show with a splash of colour ", London Evening Standard. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  24. "Harry Gruyaert", Foto/Industria . Accessed 29 August 2014.
  25. "Photography Collections Database: Record Detail", University of Texas at Austin. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  26. "Harry Gruyaert", Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessed 29 August 2014.
  27. "Collecting", David Roberts Arts Foundation. Accessed 29 August 2014.
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