The Hyena People of Nigeria
In his most recent sequence of images, South African photographer Pieter Hugo explores what he calls "the pageantry of difference". The result is a series of photographs taken during a ten-day journey he undertook with a group of traveling Nigerian entertainers and their troupe of animals: three hyenas, two pythons and four monkeys.
Pieter Hugo's photograpic work focuses on Africa and other developing countries. He has produced visual essays for publications such as The New Yorker and The Sunday Times on subjects ranging from tuberculosis in Malawi to slavery in Sudan, slums in Brazil to old age communities in South Africa. His work was selected for the touring exhibition "ReGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow", which ran at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne from 23 June to 23 October last year. The exhibition traveled to New York last month to inaugurate the opening of Aperture magazine's new gallery space. There is something about Hugo's photos that makes them stick in the mind's eye long after the shutters have closed.
