Africa as a freak show ~ Pieter Hugo
Jim Johnson recently published an entry about how Pieter Hugo’s work portraying Africa as a freak show.
What amuses me about this article is how very little Jim obviously knows about Africa as a whole. It’s so easy to come here, fly in with your safari clothes on and visit the game parks and see the animals, with everything presented in a nice and neat manner. What many tourists don’t see, is the real Africa. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Africa, keeping wild animals as pets isn’t that absurd, or indeed exotic.
Hugo’s ‘The Hyena & Other Men’ series looks at how dealers, bank robbers, debt collectors and the likes use these animals as both protection and status symbols. Honestly, it’s not that uncommon.
I’ve been in areas where wild dogs were kept like domestic animals. Drive through any rural part of the North-East of South Africa and you will see signs warning you of the danger of animals. There are no safe game reserves protecting you from them in most cases, so why should it be seen as exotic to be surrounded by these animals?
I have Vervet monkeys inside my complex. Totally wild animals that often enter my flat and steal what ever takes their fancy. This is part of life here.
When I was doing the project on the Cocaine dealers, a large amount of them used to keep snakes inside their cars, often where the drugs were stashed. This wasn’t an exotic thing to do, it was a theft deterrent, as many African cultures see the snake as a bearer of evil.
I think often it’s easy to dismiss these Africanism’s when you are a tourist. Africa does seem exotic at first glance, but that is often part of normal life on this continent.
Hugo’s work shows what life is often like here, and is a breathe of fresh air from the usual images depicted by story tellers who visit this continent.
Update:
As expected, the blog’osphere has gone all mad (don’t we spend too much time in front of the computer?). I still stand by my decision that Hugo’s work isn’t racist. I decided to call a few friends and get their opinion, all people of colour and all working in this industry we call the arts. General consensus: far from racist.
So as with anything, your mileage may vary. Pete Brook has done a noble thing and suggested a Photography & Race Conference, which I think is a good idea (now if only I can sort out the airfare to go when it finally materializes). So if you have the time, and indeed inclination, I suggest following the chatter over at Amy’s & Duck’s
I’m off to see a man about getting a wild dog.
Image copyright © Pieter Hugo
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hey Daniel, very interesting this debate and interesting to hear your take as a South African photographer. There is an interesting debate happening over on Amy Stein´s blog as well about this: http://amysteinphoto.blogspot.com/2009/10/response-to-pieter-hugos-photographs.html
Thanks Marcia
Checking that out now
Daniel, thanks for bolstering the points I’m making. None of the information you’ve mentioned comes through in the photographs. Why is that? Much of it would have been at least possible to suggest through straight photography. Furthermore, I did mention that these photographs mean something different in Nigeria, nowhere do I imply that they have to be made by a black Nigerian to be redeemed, but these photographs are consumed mostly outside of Africa where they don’t have the same meaning (geography matters, culture matters, audience matters). Also Hugo is not working in a vacuum how do you respond to the placement of his photographs in the colonial style?
I can’t possibly comment on Pieter’s approach and the way he takes images. As for the colonial style, i too have been told that my People of Durban series also portrays some people in that same style. Maybe it’s partly due to my upbringing, a white man seeing the people and the land from two different perspectives.
There is no racism there, even as much as people might want there to be. It’s another photographer taking images of the places and people he/she sees.
Discussions on this continue at duckrabbit
http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2009/10/an-email-from-stan-banos-of-reciprocity-failure-notoriety-see-links-titled-uh-oh-can-only-mean-one-thing/
Amy Stein obviously on the pulse of all things race and photography convergent, tweeted this:
http://jezebel.com/5379708/oh-no-they-didnt-french-vogue-does-blackface
Daniel, I agree with your position that discussion on this is – using Hugo as the springboard – is boring is valid. But not necessarily because people bring their own prejudgements to the table (as you’ve suggested) but because Hugo’s work is the last thing we should be worrying about in the face of foolish fashion magazine photography.
Vogue f**ked up, I couldn’t possibly say it any other way.
To go back to a period in time where racism was not only accepted but also seen as a source of comedic value, is pretty saddening.
I think the idea was that it was seen as exotic outside africa, where most of the images are actually sold.
[...] has been rumbling – Jim Johnson (interestingly all the way back in July); Amy Stein; duckrabbit; Daniel Cuthbert; and Joshua [...]
How about a face-to-face conference about issues of race in photography?
http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/photography-and-race-conference/