Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo (born 1976) is a South African photographer who primarily works in portraiture. He lives in Cape Town.

Hugo has had four monographs published. He has had solo exhibitions at Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2018), Museum für Kuns und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany, National Portrait Gallery, London, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow and the South African National Gallery, Cape Town. He has been included in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands, Tate Modern, London, DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, Michigan, and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Santiago, Chile.

Early life Hugo was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hugo has had four monographs published: Pieter Hugo: The Hyena and Other Men (2008), Pieter Hugo: Selected Works (2009), This Must Be the Place (2012), and Pieter Hugo: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (2017).

He has produced fashion photography features for Arena Homme Plus, Re-Edition Magazine, Document Journal, System Magazine and AnOther Man. He has also collaborated on publications with Louis Vuitton and Hood By Air.

Hugo has contributed to publications such as The New Yorker, Zeit magazine, Le Monde and The New York Times Magazine. In May 2015 he was invited to guest edit the supplement DeLuxe for the Dutch newspaper NRC.nl.

In 2011 Hugo collaborated with Michael Cleary, co-directing the music video for South African musician Spoek Mathambo's cover version of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control". For the video, Hugo won the Young Director Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2015 he directed the music video for "Dirty", a song by South African musical artists Dookoom.

Work Hugo's work is governed by a self-taught approach to photography. He is one of a generation of post-Apartheid photographers that seeks to confront photography's history of representing marginalised and disempowered people. His work aims to challenge preconceptions around the representation of groups of people 'other' to the Western European norm.

Hugo's first major work Looking Aside (2006) depicts portraits of people "whose appearance makes us look aside" – the blind, people with albinism, the aged, his family and himself. Hugo's most recognized work is The Hyena & Other Men (2007), which has received a great deal of attention. His series Messina/Mussina (2007) was made in the town of Musina on the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, after Colors magazine asked Hugo to work on an AIDS story. For Permanent Error (2011) Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. Kin (2014) places even greater emphasis on the photographer's family and community which Hugo describes as "an engagement with the failure of the South African colonial experiment and my sense of being 'colonial driftwood'."

The Journey (2014) is a series of infrared images of sleeping passengers taken on a sixteen-hour flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta. Hugo prefaces the work which was presented both as an exhibition (2014) and newspaper format publication (2015) with a reflective monologue on the way that infrared images from the first invasion during the Iraq War have shifted associations with the medium from wildlife photography to conflict zones, and how contemporary surveillance has effectively challenged notions of the privacy and ownership of one's representation. to work in Rwanda for its "Rwanda 20 Years: Portraits of Reconciliation" project. The project was displayed in The Hague in the Atrium of The Hague City Hall for the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. A selection of the photos have also been displayed in New York at the exhibition Post-Conflict which was curated by Bradley McCallum, artist in residence for the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. The project served as the impetus for the photographic series 1994 (2017) which explores the post-revolutionary era in both South Africa and Rwanda through a series of portraits of children from both countries.

Flat Noodle Soup (2016) chronicles Hugo's lengthy engagement with the city of Beijing, exploring how concerns with expressing personal identity within societal norms and pressures are universal and trans-national.

Personal life As of 2013, Hugo was married to film editor Tamsyn Reynolds, with whom he has two children.

Publications Publications by Hugo Looking Aside. Punctum, 2006. . The Hyena & Other Men Munich: Prestel, 2007. . With an essay by Adetokunbo Abiola. Messina/Musina. Munich: Punctum, 2007. . With a short story by Stacy Hardy, "The Donkey Fuckers", and a conversation between Hugo and Joanna Lehan. Nollywood. Munich: Prestel, 2009. . With texts by Chris Abani, Stacy Hardy and Zina Saro-Wiwa. Rwanda 2004: Vestiges of a Genocide. London; Paris: oodee, 2011. . Edition of 500 copies. With an essay by Linda Melvern. Permanent Error. Munich: Prestel, 2011. . This Must Be The Place: Selected Works. Munich: Prestel, 2012. . With essays by TJ Demos and Aaron Schuman. J-SEK. London: One League, 2012. Produced by Hugo and Louis Vuitton with an essay by Montle Moorosi II. There's a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends. London; Paris: oodee, 2012. . Kin. New York: Aperture, 2014. . With a short story by Ben Okri. The Journey. Self-published, 2015. Newspaper format. Flat Noodle Soup Talk. Paris: Bessard, 2016. . Edition of 500 copies. Photographs made in Beijing. PH&HBA. Pieter Hugo in collaboration with Hood by AIr. 2016. . London: See W. 1994. Munich: Prestel. 2017. . With text by Ashraf Jamal. Pieter Hugo. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. 2017. Ralf Beil & Uta Ruhkamp (ed.) Munich: Prestel La Cucaracha. Barcelona: RM, 2019. . With essays by Mario Bellatin and Ashraf Jamal. Edition of 1500 copies. Solus Vol.1. Barcelona: RM, 2022. .

Books and catalogues Ewing, William; Nathalie Herschdorfer and Jean-Christophe Blaser. 2005. reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow 2005–2006. New York: Aperture. . Matt, Gerald et al. 2006. Black, Brown, White: Photography from South Africa. Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien. . Ewing, William (ed). 2006. Face: The New Photographic Portrait. London: Thames & Hudson. . Yildiz, Adnan et al. 2007. An Atlas of Events. Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Hug, Alfonso et al. 2008. The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe. Bielefeld: Kerber. . Dempsey, Kate (ed). 2008. Presumed Innocence. Lincoln, Massachusetts: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. . De Cultura, Área, and Ajuntament de Tarragona (eds). 2009. Pieter Hugo: Selected Works. Tarragona: Tinglado 2. . Cresci, Mario (ed). 2009. Future Images. Milan: 24 ORE Cultura. . Blackwell, Lewis. 2009. Photo-wisdom: Master Photographers on Their Art. Auckland: PQ Blackwell. . Maggia, Filippo et al. 2010. Breaking News: Contemporary Photography from the Middle East and Africa. Milan: Skira. . Enwezor, Okwui (ed). 2010. Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection. Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity. Göttingen: Steidl. . Celant, Germano and Melissa Harris (eds). 2010. Immagini Inquietanti. Milan: La Triennale di Milano. Exhibition catalogue. Rubenstein, Bonnie, et al. 2011. Figure + Ground. Contact Photography Festival. Toronto: Scotiabank. 2011 Festival Catalogue. Ovesen, Solvej Helweg and Katerina Gregos (eds). 2011. The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Humankind. 4. Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen. Heidelberg: Kehrer. . Krifa, Michket and Laura Serani (eds). 2011. For A Sustainable World. Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial, 9th Edition. Arles and Paris: Actes Sud and Institut Français. . Kemfert, Beate and Christina Leber (eds). 2011. Road Atlas: Street Photography from Helen Levitt to Pieter Hugo. Munich: Hirmer. . Herschdorfer, Nathalie. 2011. Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past. London: Thames & Hudson. . Gavin, Francesca. 2011.100 New Artists. London: Laurence King. . Garb, Tamar. 2011. Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography. Göttingen and London: Steidl and V&A. . Fabiani, Francesca. 2011. Re-cycle. Strategie per l'architettura, la città e il pianeta. Rome: MAXXI and Elekta. . Beckmann, Anne-Marie and Freddy Langer. 2011. XL Photography 4: Art Collection. Deutsche Börse. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. . Markus Brüderlin (ed.), 2013. Art & Textiles: Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present, 2013. Exhibition catalogue. Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. Nine Weeks. Cape Town: Stevenson, 2016. . Pieter Hugo in conversation with Hansi Momodu-Gordon. Jamal, Ashraf. 2017. 'Giants'. In the World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art. Skira: Milan.

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions

2004: The Albino Project, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy, 2004; Fabrica Features, Lisbon, Portugal, 2004. 2007: Messina/Musina, Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2007 touring exhibition, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum, Port Elizabeth; Durban Art Gallery, Durban; Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, 2008 2007: Pieter Hugo: The Hyena & Other Men, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2008; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel, 2010; Photographic Centre Peri, Turku, Finland, 2010; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2012 2008: Nollywood, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2008; Australian Center for Photography, Sydney, Australia, 2009; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, 2010; 2008: Portraits, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK, 2008; Ffotogallery, Cardiff, UK, 2008 2008: Pieter Hugo: Selected Works, Tinglado 2, Tarragona, Spain, 2008 Tinglado 2, Tarragona, Spain, 2009. 2010: On Reality and Other Stories, Le château d'eau, pôle photographique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, 2010; Forest Centre Culturel, BRASS, Brussels, Belgium, 2010 2010: Permanent Error, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2011; 2013: This must be the place – Selected works 2003–2012, Museum Ludwig, Budapest 2015: Portraits: From the unsaid to the un-dead, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Mauritius 2015: In Focus, National Portrait Gallery, London 2015–2016: Fondation Cartier-Bresson, Paris, 2015; 2017: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany. 2017: Verisimilar Worlds: The West African Works 2005–2010, Organ Vida International Photography Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia. 2017–2018: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund, Germany,2017; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal, 2018. 2018: Aquí se rompió una taza, Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo, Oaxaca, Mexico 2019: Africa to China, Pékin Fine Arts, Hong Kong, China. 2019–2020: La Cucaracha, Huxley Parlour, London, 2020

Group exhibitions

2010: Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales 2010: 1910–2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 2010: Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape, Iziko Old Town House Museum, 2010: After A, Photo Notes on South Africa, Atri Reportage Festival, Atri, Italy 2010: Disquieting Images, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy 2010: Counterlives, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 2011: Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2011: For a Sustainable World, African Photography Encounters Bamako, Mali 2011: The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany 2011: The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Humankind, Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg, Germany 2011: ARS 11, Kiasma, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland 2011: Lens: Fractions of Contemporary Photography and Video in South Africa, Stellenbosch University Art Museum, South Africa 2011: Il corpo metafora di un'esperienza, CIAC Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea, Foligno, Italy 2011: Contact Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada 2011: Beguiling: The Self and the Subject, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; Contact Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada 2011: All Cannibals, Me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany 2011: Paraty em Foco photography festival, Brazil 2012: Bienal de Fotografía de Lima, Peru 2012: FotoTriennale.dk, Funen, Denmark 2012: Moscow Photobiennale, Moscow Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow 2012: International Art Exhibition, Rwesero Arts Museum, Nyanza, Rwanda 2012: Qui Vive? 3rd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow 2012: Photography of The Rainbow Nation, Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, the Netherlands 2012: Africa, There and Back, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany 2012: Transitions – Social Landscape Project, Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa 2012: Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012, The Photographers' Gallery, London 2012: Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive Part II: Contemporary Reconfigurations, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York City 2013: Nothing to Declare?, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany 2013: Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London 2013: Either/Or, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Denmark 2013: The Glorious Rise and Fall ... (and so on), , 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands 2013: Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive, The Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany 2013: Transition: Social Landscape, Rencontres d'Arles festival, Arles, France 2013: Present Tense, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France, Paris 2013: Art and Textile: Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany 2014: Public Intimacy: Art and Social Life in South Africa at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA 2014: Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2014: Present Tense, Galeria Municipal Almeida Garrett, Porto, Portugal 2014: Here Africa, , Geneve-Pregny, Switzerland 2014: Animalis, Fundació Forvm per la Fotografia, Tarragona, Spain 2014: T.R.I.P. Travel Routes in Photography, Baths of Diocletian, Rome, Italy 2014: Prospect.3: Notes for Now (P.3), New Orleans Biennial, USA 2015: Prix Pictet: Disorder, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris; Somerset House, London; et al. 2015: I will go there, take me home, Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK 2015: Beastly/Tierisch, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland 2015: Strange Worlds, , Foro Boario, Modena, Italy 2016: A Closer Look: Portraits from the Paul G Allen Family Collection, Pivot Art + Culture, Allen Institute, Seattle, USA 2016: Regarding Africa: Contemporary Art and Afro-Futurism, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel 2017: Lavoro in Movimento/Work in Motion, MAST Foundation, Bologna 2017: Good Hope. South Africa and The Netherlands from 1600, Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands 2017: 10 Years Old 2007–2017: A History of the World Told Through the Images of the Fondazione Cassa, di Risparmio di Modena Collection, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Foro Boario, Italy 2017: Up to Now. Fabrica Photography, Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy as part of Time maps. Memory, archives, future, Fotografia Europea Festival 2017: AFRICA. Telling a world, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy 2017: Dangerous Art, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel 2018: Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins, Barbican Art Gallery, London 2018: In This Imperfect Present Moment, Seattle Art Museum, Washington, USA 2018: Troubled Intensions Ahead: Confusing Public and Private, 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial, China 2018: Civilization: The Way We Live Now, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; and the National Museum of Civilization, Marseille, France. 2018: Hacer Noche (Crossing Night), Oaxaca, Mexico 2018: Recent Histories / Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from The Walther Collection, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2019: Unseen: 35 Years of Collecting Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2019: Here We Are Today: A View of The World in Photography & Video Art, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, Germany 2019: Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI 2019: IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Brussels, Belgium 2020: Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, Texas 2020: Civilisation, Photography, Now, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, New Zealand. 2020: Five Stories, One Point of View, MUSAC Collection, Museo de Arte Contermporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain. 2020: Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL.