Harry Gruyaert

Belgian b. 1941

For more than thirty years, from Belgium to Morocco, and from India to Egypt, Harry Gruyaert has been recording the subtle chromatic vibrations of Eastern and Western light.

Gruyaert studied at the School for Photo and Cinema in Brussels from 1959 to 1962. He then began freelance fashion and advertising work in Paris, while working as a director of photography for Flemish television.

In 1969 Gruyaert made the first of many trips to Morocco. His total immersion in its colors and landscapes won him the Kodak Prize in 1976 and culminated in the publication of the book Morocco in 1990. He traveled to India for the first time in 1976 and to Egypt in 1987. Far from indulging in stereotypical exoticism, Gruyaert has a vision of faraway countries that locates the viewer within peculiar and somewhat impenetrable atmospheres.

In a different sphere he covered the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. In the same year he photographed some of the first Apollo flights as they were shown on a crazy television set. This project, which exploits the colors of the screen, appeared under the title 'TV Shots' in Zoom. It was shown at the Delpire Gallery in 1974 and at Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York.

Gruyaert joined Magnum Photos in 1981. His book Made in Belgium was published in 2000, Rivages, a collection of portraits of shores around the world, in 2003, PhotoPoche in 2006, and TV Shots in 2007.

In his later work Gruyaert has abandoned the Cibachrome process in favor of digital print. Better suited to revealing the rich shades found in his films, digital print opens new possibilities for his work, bringing it one step closer to his original intention, namely to give color the means to assert its true existence.

Awards

1976      Kodak Prize

Exhibitions

2011       Ici et Ailleurs  - Box Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
2011       Rivages  - Galerie Le Lieu, Lorient, France
2011       In the Margin  - Belgium Documentary Photography, Museum Dr Guislain, Gent,
              Belgium
2010       Moscow 1989-2009  - Philippe Chaume Gallery, Paris, France; GlazGallery,
              Moscow, Russia
2009       Une prétendue réalité  - Magnum Gallery, Paris, France
2009       Marruecos  - Fundacion Tres Culturas, Sevilla, Spain
2008       Rivages  - Bon Marché, Paris, France
2008       TV Shots  - Installation at Passage du Désir, Euro-RSCG, Paris, France
2007       L’Image d’Après  - Cinémathèque Française, Paris, France
2006       Morocco  - Leica Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
2006       Rivages  - Foundacion Caixa Galicia Lugo and Vigo, Spain
2004       Parcours - Projection Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, France
2003/04  Rivages - Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, France; Galerie St-Père, 
              Paris, France
2002       Morocco - Carlos de Amberes Foundation, Madrid, Spain (tour exhibit in
              Spain)
1999       Made in Belgium - Gallery Fnac, Brussels, Belgium
1999       Laumont Editions gallery, New York, USA
1998       Lumières blanches - Fotofest, Houston, USA; Gallery Mistral, Montreal
              Canada
1997       Morocco - Andersen Consulting, Paris, France
1995       Morocco - tour exhibit in several french cultural centers in  Morroco
1990       Harry Gruyaert Fotografías - Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain
1986       Lumières blanches - Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
1980       Made in Belgium - Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
1978/80  Morocco - Delpire Gallery, Paris, France; International Culture Center, Anvers,
              Belgium; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium ; Franska Institutet, Stockholm,
              Sweden    
1974/76  TV Shots - Delpire Gallery, Paris, France; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium;
              International Center of  Photography,
              New York, USA

Books

2010       Moscow 1989-2009, Be-Pôles Ed., France
2008       Rivages (New Ed.), Textuel Ed., France
2007       TV Shots, Steidl, Germany
2006       Photo Poche, Actes Sud, France
2003       Rivages, Textuel, France
2000       Made in Belgium, Nathan/Delpire, France
1990       Morocco, Schirmer & Mosel, Germany, France, USA
1986       Lumières Blanches, Centre National de la Photographie, France

Collections

Harry Ransom Center collection, UT, Austin, Texas
Lhoist collection, Belgium
NSM. Vie/Abn Amro, Paris
Fond National d’Art Contemporain, Paris
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Metropolitan Museum Tokyo, Japan
Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium
Howard Stein collection, New York, USA
David Roberts collection, London, UK