June 7, 2007

Harry Gruyaert - TV Shots

For his first serious body of work, Harry Gruyaert photographed distorted TV images, from the first Apollo flight to the 1972 Munich Olympics producing a distressed parody of the current affairs photostory. The work created controversy when exhibited, with its disrespectful assault on television culture and its radical challenge to the conventions of press photography. Gruyaert views the work as the closest he has come to journalistic photography.

In his own words, I was living in London a the end of the 1960s when I became aware of the brainwashing power of television... I became interested in making a portrait of England by photographing the TV screen.