Harry Gruyaert: Between Worlds

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His powers of persuasion clearly exceeded those of Colonel Baker, who seemed the personification of Victorian solidity until that embarrassing incident in the sealed railway compartment, where he failed to entice Miss Dickinson to join in his bit of fun, and afterwards had to try and explain his conduct to the High Court, with the whole nation hanging on his every word. The artwork here reflects both the cultural and musical depth of Cuba as well as the political influence of revolutionary communism. Other images range from New York City to Israel to Belgium to Paris to Tokyo, Istanbul, Madrid, the Dominican Republic, Tunis.

As a Senior Curator at Tate, Dr Chris Stephens knew Smith well, and he contributes a wide-ranging introduction to Smith’s art and life. He is the only artist of his stature who has not been represented by a monograph, which the dazzling presentation of images in Richard Smith: Artworks now fulfils.And after the initial joy of growing comfortable with many layers of content, the question becomes: What is the relationship of all these layers to each other and then to us? Magnum photographer Harry Gruyaert’s work has always been thrilling in the way it articulates a particular way of seeing.

A picture from New York City in 2020 is again a combination of direct vision, obscured vision, reflection, perhaps even reflections of reflections. If we lost touch with his sense of life, they thought, we lost an essential element in our self-understanding. One of the things that’s fascinating about this collection is the way every image has multiple narrative lines. Meet Monsieur Benoit, who appeared suddenly in Paris with a scheme for telegraphing messages across the world (or, at least, across the room) by means of electricity and the telepathic power of snails, and actually raised the money to build this extraordinary machine. A text by David Campany examines the photographer's singular approach and positioning, which is "in the space of the threshold (where) we are balanced, neither in nor out, present but in neither place.As Barbara Rose said of Smith’s major Tate Gallery retrospective in 1975, he was ‘at once in and out of touch with the currents of the mainstream … au courant and aloof at the same time. And we also have in the window the reflection of what is behind the photographer – trees and cars and street signs.

A collection of seventy-five images that connect one realm with the next, this volume shows that beyond the marvelous colorist that he is, Gruyaert’s images also depict a photographer’s vision of the world.All visitors, whether to the Greek or Turkish side of the island, discover the immensely rich history, which has resulted in so many civilizations making their mark upon its soil. A note from FRAMES: if you have a forthcoming or recently published book of photography, please let us know.