A Sense of Place

The vibrant gaze of photographer Harry Gruyaert

Photographer Harry Gruyaert (b. 1941) invites us on a sweeping urban journey. Whether he takes us to Brussels, Antwerp, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Ouarzazate, Old Delhi or Moscow does not really matter. What drives the shutter release is not so much the subject but the way it presents itself to the photographer’s eye: intense, pulsating colours, the sharp outlines of shadow, and urban geometries that punctuate space like a jazz phrase – call and response. Gruyaert’s magnetic music plays out on the street, where vibrations and emotions converse.

Harry Gruyaert will be on show in the Chapelle Saint-Martin du Méjan during Les Rencontres d’Arles from 6 July until 4 October 2026.