Archive: Issue No. 130, June 2008

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Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Pieter Hugo, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004
pigment ink print on cotton rag paper
100 x 80cm

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Mallam Galadima Ahamadu with Jamis, Nigeria, 2005
from The Hyena Men series
archival pigment on cotton rag paper
image size: 100 x 100cm

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Steven Mohapi, Johannesburg, 2003
from 'Looking Aside' series
archival pigment on cotton rag paper
image size: 100 x 80cm

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Gezina and Hendrik Jacobus Venter and their children
Pieter and Intelashia with their dog Snowy and rabbit Peanut,
from 'Messina/Musina' series
image Size: 120 x 96cm

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Song Iyke with Ebube, Thank God and Mpompo.
Enugu, Nigeria, 2008
from 'Nollywood' series
C-print
image size 60 x 60cm

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo
Chris Nkulo and Patience Umeh, Enugu, Nigeria 2008
C-print
104 x 104cm


Interview with Pieter Hugo
by Cara Snyman

In December 2005 Art Review identified Pieter Hugo as one of the '100 Artists on the cusp of international success', while Aperture, followed by The New York Times, included him as 'ReGeneration: 50 photographers of tomorrow'. He was awarded the 2006 World Press Photo Award in the same year. Closer to home, Hugo was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2007 and 'Messina/Musina' just opened its last leg in Johannesburg, following closely on 'Nollywood', a new body of work shown at Warren Siebrits.

Most recently, he became the recipient of the KLM Paul Huf Award 2008, part of which grants him a solo exhibition at Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in September this year.

Hugo is based in Cape Town, and was in Gauteng just long enough to make the opening of 'Messina/Musina'. Losing him to the continental drift, he here responds to email questions from Liverpool.

Cara Snyman: Do you still work as photojournalist? How do such assignments influence your fine art practice? Or is it one and the same?
Pieter Hugo: I do odd commissions if they interest me. But not really anymore. Commissions do however sometimes afford me the opportunity and access to situations and places that may later develop into personal projects.

CS: What do you make of the dominance of the documentary mode in South African photography?
PH: I don't really spend much time thinking about it to be honest. I think there is something important and refreshing in South African art/photography that relates to the 'experiential'.

CS: One of the distinguishing features of the way you photograph is the fact that there is no attempt to be a 'fly on the wall', but you rather negotiate directly with your subject. Added to that there is no attempt at catching motion, no 'decisive moment'. These things all seem to break down the credibility of the assumed record, making it obviously posed. To what extent is this intentional or a reaction to 'standing out like a sore thumb' as you put it?
PH: It was really a combination of the two factors: being useless as a 'photojournalist', and being acutely aware of my own role in the situations I found myself in when I photographed. It evolved organically and some bodies of work are more interactive than others.

CS: In 'Pieter Hugo: The Critical Zone of Engagement' by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen in Aperture's Spring 2007 edition you were quoted as saying; 'The portrait is dead'. In context of your work, which might be interpreted as dominated by the portrait format, would you care to elaborate?
PH: Bronwyn misquoted me on that statement I'm afraid!

CS: The Afrikaner as a grouping - with a distinct focus on those on the periphery - has become a bit of a leitmotif in South African documentary photography, due to substantial attention by David Goldblatt, Roger Ballen and others. Though those bodies of work clearly had different politics in mind, your show 'Messina/Musina', seems familiar in this context. How would you position your work in terms of that?
PH: It is closer to a documentary tradition.

CS: 'Nollywood' is an interesting departure, a move towards a more surrealist bent, and towards set-up photography, installation even - if you'll pardon the comparison - a 'Dorps' vs 'Shadow Chamber' body of work. Do you feel that 'Nollywood' signals a new direction for you?
PH: I try to keep every new endeavour fresh, so I guess it is a new direction, but that doesn't mean that I won't ever go back to previous ways of working. I think of it in terms of literature: I could write fictional novels, critical essays, short stories. As an artist I make it imperative to explore the photographic lexicon.

CS: Many photographs from 'Nollywood' taken out of context can be either reality or fantasy. The work plays with perception and prejudice, like with much of your other work. Of 'Gadawan Kura: The Hyena Men', Ken Johnson said in The New York Times he assumed that you had used digital manipulation. There is this real sense of disbelief in many of your images. Would you say that that one of your main conceptual concerns is charting that border territory between the real and fictive?
PH: Definitely. Finally, someone gets it!

CS: With the shocking xenophobic violence currently raging in Gauteng and spreading rapidly, some images in 'Nollywood' seemed unsettlingly prophetic. With your work in Rwanda I was wondering in general what your take is, both politically and artistically. And of social responsibility?
PH: I am repulsed by the current situation in SA. I recently returned to Rwanda and found it a very emotional experience. I am still trying to digest what the hell is going on.

CS: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen in a review of your work in Art South Africa calls you a 'retro-ethnographer' and compares you with the Neue Sachlichkeit photographer August Sander. Beyond the obvious colonial and or paternalistic association with the role of ethnography in Africa, do you see yourself as a 'mapper of people' similar to Sander?
PH: Not really. I see myself more as a 'mapper of people that I find interesting'. I really respect August Sander - if you get a chance, have a look at his death portraits. It puts his work in a COMPLETELY different context. He was very humane I think. Sometimes people get caught up it the politics of representation and miss all the nuances, beauty, etc, of the work they are looking at.

CS: Taking photographs of the strange, the peculiar and the marginal, you have been criticised for emphasising otherness and ideas of exotic Africa. What is your response to that?
PH: I have none. I am tired of this question. I am essentially selfishly making work that is of interest to me. I think reviewers and critics (usually South African!) could find far more interesting points of entry into my work. Of course photography is problematic - I acknowledge that - but come on, let's move on.

Opens: May 27
Closes: July 5

Standard Bank Gallery
Corner Simmonds and Frederick Street, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 631 1889
www.standardbankgallery.co.za
Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am - 1pm


 


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