Pieter Hugo is a white Johannesburg born South African photographer. One of his first bodies of work entitled “Looking Aside” Produced in 2006 consisted of a series of studio portraits of people with striking appearance that cause people to avert their gaze for various reasons. This often included people with albinism, birthmarks or visible signs of blindness.  Hugo described his subjects as people who  “whose appearance makes us look aside” these portraits are conducted in a formal studio setting, they are simply composed, similar to a passport photo. The lighting (in the first three images below) is not particularly harsh or soft, but somewhere in between. I think these images have been seen as controversial because there is a question as to whether or not Hugo exploited these people who may be self conscious about their conditions for the purpose of producing intriguing photographs. His photographs could also however, be considered empowering because he photographs his subjects in a way that makes them appear unconventionally beautiful as well as bringing light to people who have conditions that affect their outward appearance.

The collection of photos of Hugo’s was his image series which was made into a photo book entitled “There’s a place in hell for me and my friends” (images from which are pictured in a 2×3 grid below) This photo series of black and white photos are highly contrasted and the colour channels within the black and white filters have been digitally altered. This exaggerates the melanin  in the complexion of his subjects, making their freckles and imperfections more visible and act as a stylistic feature of the portrait. Many critics have described this form of photo manipulation as opposing response to their heavily airbrushed images of people in the media. The subjects within this project are of a variety of different races and ethnicities although the colour of their skin does not seem to vary too much when the same manipulation process is applied to the portraits, perhaps suggesting that the colour of human’s skin is really not that different in terms of the biological makeup. Aaron Schuman stated in response to this photo series that “although at first glance we may look ‘black’ or ‘white’, the components that remain ‘active’ beneath the surface consist of a much broader spectrum. What superficially appears to divide us is in fact something that we all share, and like these photographs, we are not merely black and white – we are red, yellow, brown, and so on; we are all, in fact, coloured.”

The image above is Pieter Hugo’s self portrait which was included as part of his “There’s a place in hell for me and my friends” collection. This photograph is incredibly striking due to it’s high contrast and despite its very simple composition. All of the portraits from the previously stated collection were cropped in the same way, a simple head and shoulder shot, similar to a passport photo. I feel that this was a creative decision to draw attention to the face of the sitter, this is also supported by the incredibly plain background. In the image above the background is a very light grey colour, the whites of the eyes and the white of the shirt are much brighter than the background and this helps to bring the figure forward. The most striking element of the image is the contrast between the eyes (both the white and the very pale irises) and the skin. The skin is given a very interesting texture as the way that the photo is manipulated brings all the ares of pigmentation to attention. The texture of the beard is also very interesting as the fewer lighter coloured (perhaps grey) hairs stand out against the rest of the darker hairs.

I was drawn to Hugo’s work because of the dramatic, intense and captivating nature of his portraits in his “There’s a place in hell for me and my friends”. I also liked the fact that Hugo does not worry about flattering his sitters in this series and he also includes himself in his work. I want to take inspiration from his high contrast portraits as I feel that my angry feminist photos would work well with the intensity of this style of photo manipulation.