The big question

How have you stayed motivated throughout your career?

Harry Gruyaert says: “I don’t need to be motivated. I have to take pictures – it’s really a need. For example, with Covid I didn’t take too many pictures and then, recently, I considered shooting again and thought, ‘I really need that, and I really understand the world much better when I frame [photos]’. It’s like a drug. I’m working for myself, for my own benefit; if people like what I’m doing, I’m happy, but I never think about how it will be received.

“If I put on an exhibition and people say, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful’, I’m happy, but it’s not my intention. I want to be happy about myself, about what I have done. I don’t present myself as an artist… it’s not for me to decide that what I make is art – I’m a photographer. If people think it’s art, then that’s alright with me. It’s probably because my background is in art – paintings, cinema and so on.”