Harry Gruyaert – Morocco – PhotoBook Journal

Review by Melanie Chapman •

Let us all give thanks to Harry Gruyaert for his cones and rods. He shares his sight so that we may see his good works, and thus help us appreciate our planet as a vast and ceaselessly magical place.

How fortunate are we as lovers of photographic images that octogenarian Harry Gruyaert has travelled the far reaches of the world for decades, bringing along not only his camera and exquisite color sense, but also his humanity, to places as diverse as Egypt, Japan, Russia, and Las Vegas. In the newest Thames and Hudson publication of Gruyaert’s oeuvre, we return to Morocco, a country that has long fascinated him and has been the focus of two prior books.

Aptly titled Morocco, this gorgeously printed hard bound book offers 117 color images made between 1972 and 2012, primarily shot on film, in some cases with evident grain that befits the desert-like surroundings.

Consistent with other bodies of his work, Gruyaert demonstrates a mastery of color and composition that cannot be overstated. His landscapes have painterly qualities, his portraits of Bedouin herders seem ageless. Muslim women covered in dark attire hide their faces from his lens and thus provide graphic silhouettes against ancient painted walls. And in many of these images, there is often a brilliant pop of red that for fans and collectors of Gruyaert’s books like myself, has come to feel like his signature, as if rediscovered through his lens.

Gruyaert was a friend and colleague of the Magnum co-founder and extremely influential Black and White photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the master’s influence of the “decisive moment” can be felt in some of Gruyaert’s most complex and well-timed compositions. And in turn, when viewing many of Gruyaert’s Morocco images, with their confident embrace of harsh sun and deep shadows, one could imagine his influence on, or kinship with the dynamic street work of fellow colorist Alex Webb.

There is a great value in experiencing a body of work such as Gruyaert’s in book form. Decades in the making, when paired together this collection of images resonate anew across the span of vast time and space, and enter into a dialogue one would not likely experience otherwise.

In the taut and compelling introduction, Gruyaert writes “The thing that matters most to me in photography… is the sense of sharing the experience of the artist…of being with them, of seeing what they have seen through their eyes. Morocco has bewitched me, and I want this book to be an expression of that magic.” Once again Harry Gruyaert has succeeded, sharing with us through images moments of magic where words would have failed.

Let us all whole heartedly encourage Harry Gruyaert and Thames and Hudson to continue their collaborative efforts to revisit his impressive archive of images, some of whom he admits forgetting that he ever shot, so that the world can continue to discover anew the complexity and beauty of life seen through his eyes.

____

Harry Gruyaert’s photobooks that have been featured previously in PhotoBook Journal; Edges, Last Call, India, and Between Worlds.

____

Melanie Chapman is a Contributing Editor and a Southern California photographer.

____

Morocco, Harry Gruyaert

Photographs and Introduction: Harry Gruyaert (born in Belgium, resides in Paris)

Hardbound, cloth cover, stitched binding, 197 pages, 117 color photographs, printed in Italy, ISBN: 978-0-02795-0

____

MOROCCO. Rif Mountains. Chefchaouen. Street life. Walls are often painted in blue and white. 1975.

Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are copyright of the authors and publishers.