The Big Apple
Photography by Harry Gruyaert
Words by Ursula Lake
Explore the city that never sleeps in a whole new way with this new photographic book that celebrates New York in all its diversity.
For over fifty years, Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert has explored the streets of New York City, capturing its dazzling contrasts—from towering skylines and neon-lit diners to multicultural neighborhoods and fleeting street scenes. This body of work has culminated in a photographic love song to the city. Designed as a large-format visual album, the book presents each photograph across a double-page spread, evoking the rhythm and energy of a cinematic storyboard.
To further emphasize the cinematic quality of the images, this striking visual journey is accompanied by fictional vignettes from acclaimed filmmaker Cédric Klapisch. His witty and imaginative narratives blur the line between reality and fiction, offering glimpses into the lives of the ordinary people Gruyaert captures.
A city of endless spectacle, New York becomes a global stage in Gruyaert’s hands—alive with drama, diversity, and color. The images, combined with these imagined narratives, create a book that brings the city vividly to life. It is a city that resonates with voices, dreams, and the sounds of the street, illustrating how, for all of us, New York oscillates between reality and imagination.
Klapisch writes:
“So how do you go about finding beauty where you wouldn’t expect it? The answer lies in Harry’s eyes and in his work. By celebrating the man on the street, the ‘man of no importance,’ all the people walking through the city—shopping and running errands, waiting for a bus, a subway train, or a friend, heading for who-knows-where—Harry Gruyaert methodically builds up, step by step and place by place, a multicolored map of humanity.”
Gruyaert is also well known for his equally vibrant images of Egypt, Morocco, and India. A member of Magnum Photos, his work has been widely exhibited and published in numerous books, and he has received the Kodak Prize.
This beautiful photographic book, titled New York, complete with 95 illustrations, will be published by Thames & Hudson on 27 May 2026.
