With some twenty new photographs, this expanded edition of Roots (originally published in 2012 and rapidly sold out) by Editions Xavier Barral , plunges us into the Belgium of the 1970s to 1980s. From the first B&W photographs to the revelation of color, this book explores the distinctive, almost expressionist universe of the Belgian photographer.

Having left Belgium for several years, Harry Gruyaert felt ready to return in 1973 and take a fresh, more distanced look at his native land. He began working in black and white, taking an interest in both everyday scenes and more picturesque subjects such as festivals, carnivals and other local events, avoiding “sentimental or documentary traps”. Then came the switch to color: it took me about two years to see the color that interested me. It was a revelation. I also started traveling, photographing in Morocco and India, always in color. But then there was Belgium, with its simultaneous rejection and attraction. I knew it was a visually interesting place, where incongruous things were happening. It’s not for nothing that surrealism was so important there. In a highly personal text accompanying his photographs, Harry Gruyaert comments on his relationship with Belgium. While an essay by Belgian writer Dimitri Verlhust truly brings these photographs to life from the inside.