Book of the Week

Made in Belgium
by Harry Gruyaert

This book combines the work of two Belgian artists: writer Hugo Claus and photographer Harry Gruyaert. Both express the ambivalence they feel toward their country. Gruyaert avoided yielding to melancholy by forgoing black-and-white photography for the realism of bright colors, which allowed him to document two major Belgian phenomena: attachment to traditions and rapid Americanization. This conflict accounts for the variety of subjects shown in this book.

I am and always have been an advocate of spontaneous and realistic photojournalism. I photograph what's there.

Thomas Hoepker