Harry GRUYAERT

Harry GRUYAERT Sweden. Malmö. Cafeteria, 1982 Pigment inkjet print on Canson Baryta Photographique Pure White 310 g/m² paper Image size: 33.3 x 50 cm Frame size: 35 x 52 cm For several decades now, Harry Gruyaert has undoubtedly been the most famous color photographer. Born in Antwerp in 1941, he has always been passionate about cinema, yet it was in photography that he made his career, joining the Magnum agency in 1981. Brice Matthieussent, a writer, critic, and translator, has been a friend of Harry Gruyaert’s for nearly forty years. Their close friendship has given rise to conversations blending vivid memories—Belgium in black and white, then in color; their discoveries of Morocco, India, the United States, Russia, and Africa; surprising or moving anecdotes; humor and irony, admiration, and above all, traces of a fierce energy, a determination to discover new landscapes, different ways of life, and the full potential of that unexplored medium—color photography—some fifty years ago. Each chapter is devoted to a country or a photographic genre explored by Harry Gruyaert—fashion, industry, theater, street scenes, landscapes, and so on. begins with a reference to an iconic image by Gruyaert related to that specific subject, before blending biography with fascinating reflections on his life’s work and, of course, on the photography of this master of color.