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Pieter Hugo - A personal vision of the pioneering spirit of man

24 Oct 2012

Sought after by international and local collectors alike Hugo’s photograph, Mallum Umaru Ahmadu with Amita, Abjuba, Nigeria is part of his Hyena and Other Men series which were shot in Nigeria in 2005. He maintained his relationship with the group and returned for a follow up shoot in 2007.

Hugo is a self-taught photographer who picked up his first camera at the age of ten – the first image he ever developed was that of a homeless person. His social awareness and wry gaze remain an integral part of his work. In the Hyena and Other Men series, he averts his gaze from the abject poverty and seeming hopelessness endemic to contemporary Nigerian society and rather focuses on the positive ingenuity and inventive nature inherent in the human spirit.

In Hugo’s own words it is the “paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals – sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel” that interests the artist and renders images that, to a large extent, capture the zeitgeist of contemporary African society.

For further information please contact 011-728-8246 or jhb@straussart.co.za

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Bina Genovese 

bina@straussart.co.za / 083 680 9944