The shots of Harry Gruyaert on show in New York

Well known in Europe for his street photography, his work is admired for its extraordinary use of colour, just like his American contemporaries Joel Meyerowitz, Saul Leiter, Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. Gruyaert has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1982. It is said that Gruyaert’s life was saved by colour: born in a rigid environment of a traditional Flemish Catholic family, Gruyaert discovered the lights and colour of Europe becoming a pioneer of European colour photography.

“There’s no story. It’s just a matter of form and light. In Europe and especially in France, there is a humanistic tradition as in Cartier-Bresson, so the most important thing is the people, not so much the environment. I admire it, but I have never been attached to it. I am much more interested in all the elements: furniture, lighting, cars: details are as important as humans. It’s a completely different attitude,” says Parisian photographer Harry Gruyaert (born in Belgium in 1941), on show at the Greenberg Gallery in New York until the 14th of March.

On display there are shots taken in France, Spain, Belgium, Morocco, Japan, India, Russia and the United States over four decades from 1981 to 2017. His photographs range from street scenes to seascapes, all punctuated by a unique and saturated approach to colour.

Sometimes in his photographs one finds a solitary figure, perhaps without a face or seen from behind: “I am interested in that strange magic that occurs when things meet. I try to form a connection with a place. I must be moved by something”. And judging by the enthusiasm and attention of the visitors during the vernissage on Friday, the operation managed to transmit emotion. Through colour.