Pieter Hugo
Encyclopedia
Pieter Hugo was born 1976 and grew up in Cape Town
, South Africa
. He is a South Africa
n photographer who primarily works in portraiture and whose work engages with both documentary and art traditions with a focus on African communities.
After working in the film industry in Cape Town, Pieter Hugo spent a two-year Residency at Fabrica
, Treviso
, Italy
.
Early on in his career he noticed that, 'he often found himself being critically scrutinized by the subject he was photographing. It was then that he decided to switch to a larger and more cumbersome format of photography, one that would require negotiating consent and dialogue with the person being photographed - a more sedate and contemplative approach."
He is known to use a Hasselblad
camera and regularly shoots in the 4x5 format.
His influences range from South African photojournalist David Goldblatt
to Boris Mikhailov
. However, his work reacts against 'the culture of realism that defined South African photography in the struggle years.'
Hugo's first major photo collection Looking Aside' consisted of a collection of portraits of people 'whose appearance makes us look aside", his subjects including the blind, people with albinism, the aged, his family and himself. Explaining his interest in the marginal he has said, 'My homeland is Africa, but I'm white. I feel African, whatever that means, but if you ask anyone in South Africa if I'm African, they will almost certainly say no. I don't fit into the social topography of my country and that certainly fuelled why I became a photographer.'
This was followed by "RWANDA 2004: VESTIGES OF A GENOCIDE" which the Rwanda Genocide Institute describes as offering "a forensic view of some of the sites of mass execution and graves that stand as lingering memorials to the many thousands of people slaughtered."
His most recognized work is the series called 'The Hyena & Other Men' and which was published as a monograph. It has received a great deal of attention .
Hugo won first prize in the Portraits section of the World Press Photo 2005 for a portrait of a man with a hyena.
In 2007, Hugo received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award 07.
Hugo was also working on a series of photographs called 'Messina/Mussina' that were taken in the town of Musina
on the border between Zimbabwe
and South Africa
and which was published as a monograph. At the time Colors magazine asked Hugo to work on an AIDS story and he was fascinated by the marginal aspect of the town.
This was followed by a return to Nigeria with 'Nollywood', which consists of pictures of the Nigerian film industry..
'Permanent Error' followed in 2011 where Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. Sean O'Toole writes 'if Nollywood was playfully over-the-top, a smart riposte to accusations of freakishness and racism levelled at his photography..., Permanent Error marks Hugo’s return to a less self-reflexive mode of practice.'
In 2011 Hugo collaborated with Michel Cleary and co-directed the video of South African producer/DJ Spoek Mathambo's cover version of Joy Division
's She's Lost Control
, the fourth single from his album Mshini Wam.
Figures and Fictions co-curator Tamar Garb is ambivalent about the ethical questions his work poses: "Some people feel his work perpetuates an image of Africa as a space of abject poverty and of theatrical display for a Western art market – but he genuinely engages with the places he works in and questions the means of his own representation."
In "The Photography of Pieter Hugo" in Aperture
Magazine, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen says:
"The novelist John Fowles
observes, in an essay on The French Lieutenant’s Woman, that 'All human modes of description (photographic, mathematical…) are metaphorical. Even the most precise scientific description of an object or a movement is a tissue of metaphors.' Hugo understands that a photographic metaphor, a way of describing something through reference to something else, is created as much by the elements inside the frame of the image itself as by the carefully chosen distance, what I have called the critical zone, from the photographer’s lens to his subject. It is within this zone that Hugo maneuvers through the muddy waters of political engagement, documentary responsibility, and the relationship of these to his own aesthetic."
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Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He is a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n photographer who primarily works in portraiture and whose work engages with both documentary and art traditions with a focus on African communities.
Early Life
Hugo is self-taught, having picked up a camera aged 10. He remembers the first image he printed, which was of a homeless person..After working in the film industry in Cape Town, Pieter Hugo spent a two-year Residency at Fabrica
Fabrica
Fabrica is the name of several barrios in the Philippines, including in the province of Negros Occidental, in the Republic of the Philippines...
, Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Career
Hugo has called himself 'a political-with-a-small-p photographer... it's hard not to be as soon as you pick up a camera in South Africa'.. He believes that "the power of photography is inherently voyeuristic but I want that desire to look to be confronted." He also states that he is 'deeply suspicious of the power of photography'.Early on in his career he noticed that, 'he often found himself being critically scrutinized by the subject he was photographing. It was then that he decided to switch to a larger and more cumbersome format of photography, one that would require negotiating consent and dialogue with the person being photographed - a more sedate and contemplative approach."
He is known to use a Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
camera and regularly shoots in the 4x5 format.
His influences range from South African photojournalist David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt is a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the period of apartheid and more recently that country's landscapes.-Life and work:...
to Boris Mikhailov
Boris Mikhailov
Boris Mikhailov may refer to:*Boris Mikhailov , former Soviet international ice hockey player*Borislav Mikhailov, President of the Bulgarian Football Union, and former Bulgarian international*Boris Mikhailov...
. However, his work reacts against 'the culture of realism that defined South African photography in the struggle years.'
Hugo's first major photo collection Looking Aside' consisted of a collection of portraits of people 'whose appearance makes us look aside", his subjects including the blind, people with albinism, the aged, his family and himself. Explaining his interest in the marginal he has said, 'My homeland is Africa, but I'm white. I feel African, whatever that means, but if you ask anyone in South Africa if I'm African, they will almost certainly say no. I don't fit into the social topography of my country and that certainly fuelled why I became a photographer.'
This was followed by "RWANDA 2004: VESTIGES OF A GENOCIDE" which the Rwanda Genocide Institute describes as offering "a forensic view of some of the sites of mass execution and graves that stand as lingering memorials to the many thousands of people slaughtered."
His most recognized work is the series called 'The Hyena & Other Men' and which was published as a monograph. It has received a great deal of attention .
Hugo won first prize in the Portraits section of the World Press Photo 2005 for a portrait of a man with a hyena.
In 2007, Hugo received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award 07.
Hugo was also working on a series of photographs called 'Messina/Mussina' that were taken in the town of Musina
Musina
Musina or Messina is the northernmost town in the Limpopo province of South Africa near the Limpopo River border to Zimbabwe. It has a population of between 20,000 and 40,000. Iron ore, coal, magnetite, graphite, asbestos, diamonds, semi-precious stones and copper are mined in the...
on the border between Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and which was published as a monograph. At the time Colors magazine asked Hugo to work on an AIDS story and he was fascinated by the marginal aspect of the town.
This was followed by a return to Nigeria with 'Nollywood', which consists of pictures of the Nigerian film industry..
'Permanent Error' followed in 2011 where Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. Sean O'Toole writes 'if Nollywood was playfully over-the-top, a smart riposte to accusations of freakishness and racism levelled at his photography..., Permanent Error marks Hugo’s return to a less self-reflexive mode of practice.'
In 2011 Hugo collaborated with Michel Cleary and co-directed the video of South African producer/DJ Spoek Mathambo's cover version of Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
's She's Lost Control
She's Lost Control
"She's Lost Control" is a song by British post-punk band Joy Division. It was first introduced in a concert in June 1978. Two separate single recordings have been released: a guitar-dominated version appearing on the band's 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures, and a heavier and more electronic...
, the fourth single from his album Mshini Wam.
Critical Reception
While receiving a lot of 'critical bouquets', Hugo has also been accused of sensationalising and exploiting the exotic "other". Hugo responds, "My intentions are in no way malignant, yet somehow people pick it up in that way. I've travelled through Africa, I know it, but at the same time I'm not really part of it... I can't claim to [have] an authentic voice, but I can claim to have an honest one."Figures and Fictions co-curator Tamar Garb is ambivalent about the ethical questions his work poses: "Some people feel his work perpetuates an image of Africa as a space of abject poverty and of theatrical display for a Western art market – but he genuinely engages with the places he works in and questions the means of his own representation."
In "The Photography of Pieter Hugo" in Aperture
Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...
Magazine, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen says:
"The novelist John Fowles
John Fowles
John Robert Fowles was an English novelist and essayist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Fowles among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Birth and family:...
observes, in an essay on The French Lieutenant’s Woman, that 'All human modes of description (photographic, mathematical…) are metaphorical. Even the most precise scientific description of an object or a movement is a tissue of metaphors.' Hugo understands that a photographic metaphor, a way of describing something through reference to something else, is created as much by the elements inside the frame of the image itself as by the carefully chosen distance, what I have called the critical zone, from the photographer’s lens to his subject. It is within this zone that Hugo maneuvers through the muddy waters of political engagement, documentary responsibility, and the relationship of these to his own aesthetic."
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011- Permanent Error, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
- Permanent Error, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada
2010
- Permanent Error, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa; Brodie Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Nollywood, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
- The Hyena and Other Men, Photographic Centre Peri, Turku, Finland
- On Reality and Other Stories, Forest Centre Culturel, BRASS, Brussels, Belgium
- Nollywood, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
- Nollywood, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
- On Reality and Other Stories, Le Chateau d’Eau, Toulouse, France
- Nollywood, Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- BE PREPARED!, Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- The Hyena and Other Men, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel
- Nollywood, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2009
- Nollywood, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- Nollywood, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy
- Nollywood, Australian Center for Photography, Sydney, Australia
2008
- Pieter Hugo: Selected Works, Tinglado 2, Tarragona, Spain
- The Hyena and Other Men, FOAM_Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- God’s Time is the Best, Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Portraits, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, UK
- Portraits, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
- Nollywood, Warren Siebrits Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Works 2002-2007, Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Geneva, Switzerland
- Messina/Musina, National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
- Pieter Hugo: The Hyena & Other Men, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
- Messina/Musina, Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2007 touring exhibition, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum, Port Elizabeth; Durban Art Gallery, Durban; Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
- Messina/Musina, Extraspazio, Rome, Italy
- Looking Aside, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006
- Presence, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Geneva, Switzerland
- Looking Aside, Warren Siebrits Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004
- The Albino Project, Fabrica Features, Lisbon, Portugal
- The Albino Project, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
- Rwanda 2004: Vestiges of a Genocide, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2002
- Margin, the Cold Room Photographic Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011- Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2010
- Breaking News: Contemporary photography from the Middle East and Africa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio Provincia di Modena, Italy
- Sharon Stone in Abuja, Location One, New York, NY
- Counterlives, Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
- Disquieting Images, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
- This is Our Time, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Southern Germany
- After A, Photo Notes on South Africa, Atri Reportage Festival, Atri, Italy
- Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape, Iziko Old Town House Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; Sanlam Gallery, Bellville, South Africa
- 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales
- Halakasha!, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
- PEEKABOO: Current South Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
- Room for Justice, Avocats Sans Frontières, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- A Celebration of 20 Years, Hereford Photo Festival, Belfast, Ireland
- FotoTageTrier 2010, Berlin, Germany
- Angkor Photo Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia
2009
- Les Rencontres de Bamako Biennial of African Photography, Bamako, Mali
- Creating Identity: Portraits Today, 21c Museum, Louisville, KY
- A Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK
- The Endless Renaissance, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL
- Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
- 3 stories: Pieter Hugo, Mikhael Subotzky, Paolo Woods, Centre national de l'audiovisuel (CNA), Dudelange, Luxembourg
- Stigmata, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, France, at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
- Photo Beijing, Beijing, China
- Animalism, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK
- reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, Hoffman Gallery, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR; Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, University of Maryland / Baltimore County, College Park, MD
2008
- A Look Away, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
- Room for Justice, Palais de Justice, Brussels, Belgium; Les Recontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
- The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe, Berliner Festspiele, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
- Rencontres d'Arles festival, Discovery Award laureate, Arles, France
- Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, London, UK; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
- Make Art/Stop AIDS, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
- Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts
- reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, MI; Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art; Miami Dade Community College, Miami, FL
2007
- Lumo ’07 – ‘us,’ 7th International Triennial of Photography, Finland
- Contemporary Photography from South Africa – Part 1, Hereford Photography Festival, UK
- An Atlas of Events, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
- Faccia A Faccia: Il nouvo ritratto fotografico, FORMA, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milan, Italy
- In Your Face, Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Geneva, Switzerland
- Family Relation, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Reality Check: Contemporary art photography from South Africa 2007, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany; Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany; Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany
- Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
- reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
- Art Institute of Boston, MA
2006
- South African Art Now, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
- Como Viver Junto, 27th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
- Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Santiago de Chile, Chile
- Street: Behind the Cliché, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Pingyao International Photographic Festival (PIP), Pingyao, China
- Tour - Cape Town to Miami: Hilger Contemporary, Vienna, Austria; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- Nie Meer, De Warande in Turnhout, Belgium
- Black, Brown and White, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
- Rivers of Suffering, Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
2005
- reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Aperture Gallery, New York, NY; Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
2003
- Staged Realities—The Studio in African Photography, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- From Chaos to Order and Back, DDD Gallery, Osaka, Japan; Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2002
- Margin, The Cold Room Photographic Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- Positions on South African Photography – Today, OMC Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2001
- New South African Art, JAK Gallery, London, UK
Collections
- 21c Museum, Louisville, KY
- Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Bass Museum, Miami, Florida
- Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, Germany
- Deutsche Börse Group, Frankfurt, Germany
- FNAC, France
- Ethnologische Museum, Berlin
- FOAM_Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
- Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Modena, Italy
- Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands
- Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
- Johanesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
- LaSalle Bank, Chicago, Illinois
- Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
- Margulies Collection, Miami, Florida
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
- Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castillo y León
- Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
- Progressive Art Collection
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
- South African National Gallery, Cape Town
- Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
- The Walther Collection, Burlafingen, Germany
- Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
- Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2011- Hugo, Pieter. Permanent Error. Munich: Prestel, 2011.
2010
- “Dumping Across the Digital Divide”. New York Times Magazine. 15 August 2010.
- Franzoni, Christina. “On Africa”. Zoom. July 2010
- Aletti, Vince. “Goings on About Town: Art: Pieter Hugo [Review}”. The New Yorker. April 2010
- Beckmann, Anne-Marie. “On My Mind.” Foam Magazine. No. 22. Spring 2010.
- Bourland, Ian. “Critic’s Picks: Pieter Hugo”. Artforum. 23 March 2010.
- Hall, Scott. “Now Showing: Hooray for Nollywood”. T Magazine. April 2010.
- Rexer, Lyle. ”About the Cover”. [Cover] Photograph. March / April 2010.
- Siegal, Miranda. “See Photographer Pieter Hugo’s Take on Nigerian Cinema.” New York Magazine. 23 February 2010.
- “Pieter Hugo: Nollywood [Listing]’. The New Yorker. 8 March 2010.
- “Critic’s Picks: Pieter Hugo: Nollywood [Listing].” Time Out New York. 11 March 2010.
2009
- Hugo, Pieter. Nollywood. Munich: Prestel, 2009.
- Angelucci, Federica. “Welcome to Nollywood.” Dazed and Confused. August 2009.
- “No Apology.” Art South Africa, Summer 2009.
2008
- O’Hagan, Sean. “Africa as you’ve never seen it.” The Observer. 20 July 2008.
- [Cover]. JUXTAPOZ. The Photography Issue. No. 88 May 2008.
- “Pieter Hugo and The Hyena Men of Nigeria.” British Journal of Photography. 14 May 2008
- “Street & Studio: Sharp photographs and blurred boundaries.” Telegraph. 17 May 2008.
- “All Human Life.” The Guardian. 21 May 2008.
- Grafik, Claire. “Who Are You Looking At? Clare Grafik on Pieter Hugo.” Art on Paper March/April 2008.
- Dempsey, Kate, Ed. Presumed Innocence. DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. 2008
- Johnson, Ken. “Pieter Hugo: ‘The Hyena and Other Men’ [‘Last Chance’ review].” The New York Times 11 January 2008: E27.
- Johnson, Ken. “Pieter Hugo: ‘The Hyena and Other Men’ [review].” The New York Times 4 January 2008: E31.
- Doran, Anne. “Pieter Hugo: The Hyena and Other Men [review].” Time Out New York 10-16 January 2008: 71.
- Callahan, Christine. “Man Tames Beast: Pieter Hugo’s camera boldly investigates dominance and submission.” Gay City News 3-9 January
2008
- “Pieter Hugo [review].” The New Yorker 7 January 2008.
- Gilbert, Alan. “My Hyena.” Village Voice 2 January 2008.
- Verrecas, Goedele. “Pieter Hugo: Mensen aan de rand en erover.” Snoecks [Belgium] 2008.
2007
- Hugo, Pieter. The Hyena and Other Men. Munich: Prestel, 2007.
- Johnson, Ken. “Pieter Hugo [review].” The New York Times 28 December 2007.
- Kreye, Andrian. “Höllenhunde in den Städten.” Feuilleton 27 November 2007.
- Gopnik, Blake. “Glories of Gotham: A Bright Art Season in New York.” The Washington Post 18 December 2007: C1-C2.
- [review]. Condé Nast Traveler December 2007.
- [image]. Time Out New York November 29, 2007.
- [image]. The New Yorker December 10, 2007.
- Kuan, Debora. [critic’s picks]. Artforum December 2007.
- Hugo, Pieter. Messina / Musina. Paris: Punctum Editions, 2007.
- Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. “Pieter Hugo: The Critical Zone of Engagement.” Aperture Spring 2007.
- Trainor, James. “How to Live Together.” Frieze January 2007.
- Weinstein, Steve. “Peter Hugo: Stephen Cohen Gallery.” Focus Magazine May 2007.
- “Pieter Hugo: Outside/Outsiders.” Portfolio Contemporary Photography. Issue 44, 2007.
2006
- Hugo, Pieter. Looking Aside: South African studio portraits 2003-2006. Paris: Punctum Editions, 2006.
- Ewing, William A., Ed. FACE: The New Photographic Portrait. Thames & Hudson, 2006.
- Black, Brown, White: Photography from South Africa. Kunsthalle Wien, 2006.
- Bester, Rory. “Pieter Hugo: Outsider/Outsiders”. Portfolio: Contemporary Photography in Britain December 2006.
- Smith, Roberta. “Regeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow [Review]”. The New York Times 9 June 2006.
2005
- “100 Artists on the Cusp of International Success.” Art Review [UK] December 2005.
- “Men and Hyenas: The Photos of Pieter Hugo.” Internazionale [IT] 27 October – 4 November 2005.
- Erwing, William., Nathalie Herschdorfer, and Jean-Christophe Blaser. reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow 2005-2006. New York: Aperture, 2005.
- O’Toole, Sean. “The Outsider.” Creative Review [UK] June 2005.
2004
- Checchi, Rosanna. “Pieter Hugo.” Zoom [Italy] May 2004.