He is now under renewed consideration as one of Europe’s most important photographers…No matter where he turns his eye, his work attests to a constant exploration of the potentialities of color in seemingly colorless urban environments.
Mirroring surfaces and windows are abundant [and] attest to Gruyaert's self-subjected distance, while nonetheless situating the photographer as observer and frame-giver – the quintessential flâneur.
Rather than explicating large political or societal issues through his work, he prefers to speak about the contradictions of reality through the quality of light, color, and contrast.
"Whether Gruyaert roams the streets of Antwerp, Las Vegas, Moscow, or Paris, it is not the need to document that drives him, bul his appetite for interpretation.
He directs us toward the unsung joys and tragedies of realities that upon first observation seem barren and empty, but in fact are structured through colored planes and details.