Along with the studio portrait of Maria Goliath, this frank and disarming portrait of Owen Knibbs is part of Hugo’s Looking Aside series. The photographer has purposely made no effort to soften the edges here. Instead, direct composition and lighting ensure that every blemish and every crease is visible on the aged face of the sitter. The harsh reality of aging and the unrelenting effects of sun exposure on pale skin are made visually manifest in the person of Owen Knibbs, who gazes directly at the viewer, stoically challenging him/her/them to see him exactly as he is.

In the text by Antjie Krog published in the book that accompanied this series, she writes:

But the clamouring suddenly comes from everywhere. These pages are filed with other people. Strange people. People one does not necessarily want to look at directly. Strangers for sidelong glances. People who are not one’s own.

Within the covers of a book, what possibility do they pose? Do they pose a risk for who we think ‘we’ are? Or do they restore the self into the ‘we’. And who are these people who call into question the definition of what we assume ‘we’ is?

They are outside the ‘we’. The way they are gathered interrogates us.

‘They leave us with questions: Can ‘I’ only become part of the ‘we’ when the ‘I’ owns in a limited sense the one who is not one’s own?

Is it our task then, to create spaces where they can demand to be constitutive of the ‘we’ itself?’

SOURCE
Krog, Antjie. 2006. ‘What are you looking at?’ Looking Aside: South African studio portraits – Pieter Hugo. Rome: Punctum Editions.

This outlandish image of a zombie-like bandaged figure in a wrecked and abandoned old café or classroom is part of Hugo’s Nollywood (2009) series in which he explores the multilayered reality of the Nigerian film industry. These staged representations feature local actors who recreate themes and characters from Nollywood films: young men in military fatigues; witch doctors, healers and saints; hunters with their kill; prostitutes in their rooms… The result is a series of surreal blurring of fact and fiction.

‘Nollywood is the third largest film industry in the world, releasing between 500 and 1 000 movies each year. It produces movies on its own terms, telling stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: it is a rare instance of self-representation on such a scale in Africa. The continent has a rich tradition of storytelling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the popular media before. Stars are local actors; plots confront the public with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery, prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

‘In his travels through West Africa, Hugo became increasingly intrigued by this hyperactive industry, in constant production. He compiled a list of the iconic images and scenes that had attracted his attention, and imagined photographing in these settings. Initial attempts to photograph on actual film sets however failed, in Hugo’s mind, to capture the intensity of the situations. He decided to take his interpretation of these staged realities into another realm by assembling a team of actors and assistants. He asked them to recreate the stereotypical myths and symbols that characterise Nollywood productions, reproducing the dynamic of movie sets. The tableaux of the series confront us with a verisimilar world: the situations are clearly surreal, although they could be real on a set; furthermore, they are rooted in the local symbolic imaginary. The boundaries between documentary and fiction become very fluid, and we are left wondering whether our perceptions of the real world are indeed real.’

The book published by Prestel in tandem with this series features texts by Nigerian novelist Chris Abani, whose short fiction piece captures the chaos of the filmmaking process, and an essay by video artist and filmmaker Zina Saro-Wiwa (daughter of the late Nigerian poet, and environmental and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa) on Nollywood’s explosive growth and what it means to Nigerian.

SOURCE
http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/hugo/nollywood_index.htm

Hugo’s Portrait of the Honorable Justice Julia Sakardie-Mensah highlights the contradictions of personal/cultural identity that may be called into play for an individual occupying a position of public office. To what extent does the judge depicted identify with the white wig she is wearing; a flamboyant masculine symbol of judicial rank that has its origins in late-17th century Europe?

This portrait forms part of Hugo’s The Judges series, which presents portraits of African judges dressed in official regalia. The series was shot in Botswana in 2005. ‘[The series] was made during the final months of the longest running court case in Botswana’s history,’ reads a review of Pieter Hugo – Portraits (2008), an exhibition that was curated by Autograph ABP in collaboration with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool with the support of the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town. ‘A group of Bushmen had accused the government of illegally evicting them in order to exploit the diamond and mineral potential of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In a landmark ruling, the three member High Court ruled that the Bushmen were entitled to live and hunt on their ancestral lands. These studies, alluding to the imperatives of authoritarian portraiture, turn lazy assumptions about racial stereotypes upside down.’

SOURCE
http://www.ffotogallery.org/pieter-hugo-–-portraits