[ BOOK LIVES ] Made in Belgium by Harry Gruyaert

Made in Belgium
by Harry Gruyaert
Delpire Éditeur
ISBN 9782851072030

I can’t believe that I have taken this long to write about Harry Gruyaert.

How important was Made in Belgium to me?

Extremely. Enough for me to name a book of my own in its honor.

Admittedly, I got to know Gruyaert’s works a little late.

My first encounter with him has to be TV Shots. I mean, how cool is that? To just sit in front of a television set and photograph images by others and then label them as your own art?

You can try doing the same thing but I can assure you that you won’t achieve the same. Definitely not the same feel. So please don’t try.

I must have also like Gruyaert because he seems ‘quiet’ compared to the other Magnum giants. It seems to me that he just let his works speak for themselves, something many claim to do but don’t.

But I think the bigger(if not the biggest reason) is that I like film and cinematography and his aesthetics just have those qualities synonymous with movie-making.

Lastly, I can promise that you will be reading quite about his other books in the near future.