Harry Gruyaert

New in the Photofile series, a mini-monograph on Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert.



Born in Antwerp in 1941, Harry Gruyaert was a pioneer of European colour photography in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972, he created TV Shots, a series of images created by turning the dial on a television set at random and photographing the screen. Later he travelled the world, seeking out different kinds of light and exhibiting a particular fascination with borders, interfaces and incongruous juxtapositions. A member of Magnum Photos since 1982, he describes colour as ‘a means of sculpting what I see ... it’s the emotion of photography.’ Most recently he has begun to explore the experimental freedom offered by digital photography. Autonomous, non-narrative and often witty, Gruyaert’s images are complex encounters with colour and light.