Harry Gruyaert


Harry Gruyaert is a Belgian photographer known for his images of India, Morocco and Egypt as well as of the west of Ireland and for his use of colour. He is a member of Magnum Photos. His work has been published in a number of books, been exhibited widely and won the Kodak Prize.

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. He began freelance work in Paris, while working as a director of photography for Flemish television.
In 1969 Gruyaert made his first trip to Morocco. The resulting work won him the Kodak Prize in 1976 and was published in the book Morocco in 1990. He travelled to India for the first time in 1976 and to Egypt in 1987.
In 1972 he photographed the Summer Olympic Games in Munich and the first Apollo flights as they were shown on a television set. This series, TV Shots, was first exhibited at the Delpire Gallery in 1974 and later elsewhere. It was published as a book in 2007.
Gruyaert joined Magnum Photos in 1982 and became a full member in 1986.

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

Publications

Publications by Gruyaert

  • Lumières Blanches. Paris: Centre national de la photographie, 1986.. 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.. With an interview by Brice Matthieussent.
  • *Marruecos. Seville: Fundación de las Tres Culturas, 2009.. 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..
  • Made in Belgium. Paris: Nathan/Delpire, 2000.. Text by Hugo Claus, in Flemish and French.
  • Rivages
  • *Paris: Textuel, 2003.. Preface by Charles-Arthur Boyer.
  • *Paris: Textuel, 2008.
  • Harry Gruyaert. Photo Poche series. Arles, France: Actes Sud, 2006..
  • TV Shots. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007.. With a text by Jean-Philippe Toussaint.
  • Harry Gruyaert: Edges. Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt, 2009.. Edited and with preface by Charles-Arthur Boyer.
  • Moscow 1989-2009. Paris: Be-Pôles, 2010.. Text in French and English.
  • Roots. Paris: Xavier Barral, 2012..
  • Irish Summers. Gallery 51, 2020.. Work made in Ireland between 1983 and 1984.

Publications with others

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions with others

Award

  • 1976: Winner, Kodak Prize.

Collections

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