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Pieter Hugo
The Hyena and Other Men
Pieter Hugo
Pieter Hugo. Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Nigeria, 2005
Pieter Hugo’s The Hyena and Other Men (2005-2007) is a portrait series produced in Nigeria about a community of ‘hyena men’ who together form a community around the ownership of exotic animals, predominantly hyenas, but pythons and monkeys as well. Dubbed the “Gadawan Kura” (which roughly translates from Hausa to “hyena handlers”), these men make a living by capturing, training, and performing with these animals.
On the surface, Hugo’s work represents the sometimes-odd relationships humans can develop with animals. As we unfold the layers of The Hyena and Other Men we begin to find deeper themes of dominance and submission and how they relate to masculine ideals. It’s not a stretch to zoom out of this work to consider the countless ways in which humanity asserts power over nature for economic gain. And in Hugo’s work the intense dynamics of such relationships are ground into a still silence, as the quietude of photographs and the casual postures worn by his subjects suggest that these moments we see are simply of just another day in the world. Each representing someone, somewhere, amidst their own relative normality of everyday life.
Selected Works
Pieter Hugo
Alhaji Hassan with Ajasco, Ogere-Remo, Nigeria, 2007
3 ETH
Pieter Hugo
Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, 2005
3 ETH
Pieter Hugo
Emeka, motorcyclist and Abdullahi Ahmadu, Asaba, Nigeria, 2007
3 ETH
Pieter Hugo
Abdullahi Amadu with Mainasara, 2005
3 ETH
Pieter Hugo
Garuba Yawu with Mora, Ogere-Remo, Nigeria, 2007
3 ETH
Pieter Hugo
Mohammed Rabiu with Jamis, Asaba, Nigeria, 2007
3 ETH
Full Collection
Artist
Pieter Hugo
1976 (RSA)
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Hugo is a photographic artist living in Cape Town.
Major museum solo exhibitions have taken place at Museu Coleção Berardo; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Fotografiska in Stockholm, MAXXI in Rome and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, among others. Hugo has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Modern, the Folkwang Museum, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and the São Paulo Biennale.
His work is represented in prominent public and private collections, among them Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuesum, the Museum of Modern Art, V&A Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Walther Collection, Deutsche Börse Group, Folkwang Museum and Huis Marseille.
Hugo received the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d’Arles Festival and the KLM Paul Huf Award in 2008, the Seydou Keita Award at the Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet and was chosen as the ‘In Focus’ artist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Press + Articles
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Pieter Hugo's best photograph: the hyena men of Nigeria
The Guardian (article)
