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Pieter Hugo

On displey at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Pieter Hugo’s socio-cultural portraits record the visible traces and scars of lived biography as well as lived-through national history.

What divides us and what unites us? How do people of all colors live with the shadows of cultural repression or political dominance? The South African photographer Pieter Hugo explores these questions in his portraits, still lifes, and landscapes.

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Top: Pieter Hugo, Green Point Common, Cape Town, from the series “Kin”, 2006-2013. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln.
Above: Pieter Hugo, In Sipho Ntsibande’s Home, Soweto, from the series “Kin”, 2006-2013. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln

Pieter Hugo, Deerskin, Beijing, from the series “Flat Noodle Soup Talk”, 2015-2016. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln

Pieter Hugo, Guo family, Beijing, from the series “Flat Noodle Soup Talk”, 2015-2016. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln

Pieter Hugo’s socio-cultural portraits record the visible traces and scars of lived biography as well as lived-through national history. He is particularly interested in social subcultures, the gulf between the ideal and reality. His pictures feature the homeless; albinos; AIDS sufferers; men who tame hyenas, snakes, and monkeys; people who gather electrical scrap metal in apocalyptic scenarios; costumed Nollywood actors in striking poses, in addition to his own family and friends.

Pieter Hugo, Abdullah Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria, from the series “The Hyena & Other Men”, 2005-2007. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln — Pieter Hugo, *Abdullah Mohammed with Mainasara*, Lagos, Nigeria, from the series “The Hyena & Other Men”, 2005-2007. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln

His photographs are non-hierarchical; everyone is treated with the same amount of respect. More artist than anthropologist or documentarian, Hugo captures the “moment of voluntary vulnerability” (Pieter Hugo) with a pronouncedly detached, but at the same time also empathetic, concise visual language, creating in this way true to life portraits of powerful directness.

Pieter Hugo, Portrait #7, Rwanda, from the series “1994”, 2016. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln — Pieter Hugo, *Portrait #7*, Rwanda, from the series “1994”, 2016. © Pieter Hugo, Priska Pasquer, Köln

until 23 July 2017
Pieter Hugo. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Kunstmuseum
Hollerplatz 1, Wolfsburg

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Pieter Hugo

On displey at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Pieter Hugo’s socio-cultural portraits record the visible traces and scars of lived biography as well as lived-through national history.

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