Brussels. 1981.
Brussels. 1981. "Midi" train station district.
Brussels. 1981. "Place de la Bourse" square. Coffee.
Flanders region. Town of Antwerp. 1988.
Brussels. 1981. "Neuve" street.
Flanders region. Town of Antwerpen. 1988. Launderette.
Coastline. 1988, Blankenberge.
Flanders region. Town of Boom. 1988. Industrial area.
Province of Hainaut. Town of La Louvière. 1981. "Gilles" carnival.
Boom. Fair. 1981.
Brussels. 1981. "Gare du Nord" train station district.
Town of Ostende. 1988.
Town of Liège. 1981.
Flanders region. Antwerpen. Gas station. 1988.
Province of Hainaut. Town of Binche. 1981. "Gilles" carnival.
Wallonia region. 1981. Village in the Province of Brabant.
Brussels. 1981. Rue Royale.
Flanders region. Ypres. Cats festival. Since the 10th century, on the second Sunday of the month of May, people celebrate cats to be fortunate for the rest of the year. 1988.
Wallonia region. 1981. Village in the Province of Brabant.
Flanders region. Town of Antwerpen. 1988.
Images © Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Harry Gruyaert tackles his conflicting emotions towards his homeland of Belgium with his trademark use of color. Born in Antwerp in 1941, Gruyaert took up photography against his father’s aspirations, relocating to Paris in his early 20s to work as an assistant to William Klein. After a short-lived fascination with fashion photography, Gruyaert’s journey through color began with a visit to Morocco in 1966. Along with Joel Meyerovitz, Stephen Shore and Saul Leiter, Gruyaert was one of the first to exploit the creative power of color film. Constructed around bold graphics and suggestive lighting and inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s aesthetically complex cinematography, Gruyaert’s saturated, non-narrative images forged new ground in the photographic scene of the time. Perceiving color as a means to awake the senses and stimulate physical experiences, Gruyaert travelled extensively across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, living out of his Volkswagen Kombi for the most part. “I move around a lot, I like to be excited and discover things. It’s about freedom. If you stay in the same place for too long you’ll start to think it’s normal, but nothing is normal. One shouldn’t get used to things; it’s really important to me to see things with fresh eyes”, Gruyaert said of his need to explore the world. While in New York, he was introduced to pop art, which became a strong influence in his later work, and inspired his renowned series TV Shots (1972). While he admitted that it took him time to discover color in his own country due to a sense of sadness and hostility that his homeland evoked in him, Gruyaert returned to Belgium in the early 1980s – shot over a decade, Made In Belgium is possibly one of his most powerful works. Now in his 70s and a member of the elite Magnum photo agency, Gruyaert has no desire to put down his camera, his biggest irk being the shots he isn’t able to capture, “the only thing that bothers me are the pictures that I miss.”