Born in Antwerp in 1941, Harry Gruyaert grew up dreaming of becoming a film director. His relationship with New York City began in 1968, when the French film-maker François Reichenbach invited him to photograph on the set of a documentary he was making. Gruyaert stayed for months, living in SoHo, and was baptised into the budding pop art movement while capturing vibrant street scenes — a frenetic jumble of people, yellow taxis, neon signs and garish advertising hoardings.
Colour photography became Gruyaert’s passion at a time when monochrome was still viewed as the superior artistic form in Europe. A member of Magnum Photos since 1982, he has spent more than 50 years photographing New York, as well as shooting extensively in Morocco, India and across Europe. “For me, photography is not only a matter of composition or colour, it must also talk about place and time,” he has said.
His photographs of New York are presented in a new book as if they are the storyboard of a film, accompanied by fictional vignettes written by the French screenwriter Cédric Klapisch. “When I look at his photos, I immediately see life,” Klapisch writes in the book. “I often find myself wondering who these people are that I’m looking at; they turn into characters in a potential movie.”
Harry Gruyaert: New York by Cedric Klapisch (Thames & Hudson £50). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members.
Liquor store, Manhattan, 1985. Flashes of red unify the composition in many of Gruyaert’s images of New YorkHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 1985. Gruyaert often shoots at night, using streetlights and car headlights to illuminate steam rising from drainsHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 1972. The explosion of colour Gruyaert witnessed on the streets of New York and in Morocco convinced him not to shoot in black and whiteHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 2010. Sunlight illuminates the orange netting around a building siteHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 1985. Children spray a passing car with water from a fire hydrantHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan Bridge, 1998Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 2010. An orange handbag and pink nail varnish catch the photographer’s eyeHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 1985. In the new book, Klapisch imagines this man fretting over his wife’s 60th birthday present: “If he gets Margaret something too expensive, she might think it’s suspicious…”Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 2010. A traffic cop in cool blue performs his duties beneath the orange-tinged chaos of a building site and a sultry jeans advertHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 1985. A teetering Lady Liberty performer in white is balanced by a down-to-earth couple in redHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos
Manhattan, 2006. A doorman dressed in black with gold trim blends into the gilded entrance of Trump TowerHarry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos