HARRY GRUYAERT is a Magnum photographer, but he doesn’t do that thing for which the agency’s chosen ones are so often celebrated: narrative. “There is no story,” he’s said of his photos. “It’s just a question of shapes and light.”
Precisely why this boy is sprawled on the balustrade or what is under the gingham sheet is therefore a mystery. What we do know about this image is that we are in Mopti, a town on the banks of the Niger River in Mali. People catch fish here and dry it. For four months of the year, the area floods turning the town into an archipelago and obliging the inhabitants to get around on stone causeways. It must be dramatic. There must be stories here. But Gruyaert has carefully excluded anything that threatens to look like an event.
This story is from the June 16 2017 edition of Newsweek.
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This story is from the June 16 2017 edition of Newsweek.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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