25 August 1941, is a Belgian photographer. Born in Antwerp, he studied photography and cinema at the School for Photography and Film (INRACI) in Brussels between 1959 and 1962. He initially worked in television as a director of photography before dedicating himself fully to photography in the late 1960s. Travels to the United States, Morocco, and later India and Egypt became formative experiences in the development of his work.

Gruyaert is best known for his pioneering use of color photography. At a time when color was still uncommon in documentary and artistic photography, he developed a visual language centered on light, atmosphere, geometry, and the emotional qualities of color. Influenced by cinema and Pop Art, he approached photography less as reportage and more as a way of transforming everyday scenes through visual relationships of color, form, and movement.

Among his earliest and most influential projects is TV Shots, begun in London in the early 1970s, in which he photographed images directly from television screens. He also produced extensive bodies of work in Morocco, India, Egypt, the United States, Ireland, and his native Belgium. Many of these projects were published as photobooks, including Morocco (1990), Made in Belgium (2000), Rivages (2003), TV Shots (2007), Roots (2012), and India. The photobook has remained a central form for presenting his work.

Gruyaert received the Kodak Prize in 1976 and joined Magnum Photos in 1981, becoming a full member in 1986. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the development of European color photography and among the first Magnum photographers to work predominantly in color. His photographs have been exhibited internationally and are held in numerous public collections.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), English edition. Retrieved June 17, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Gruyaert