Biography Pieter Hugo (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1976)
Pieter Hugo is a South African photographer whose photographs often centre on people marginalized from mainstream society. His work follows the lineage of the social photography of August Sander or Diane Arbus or of contemporaries such as Thomas Struth and Rineke Dijkstra. Recent solo exhibitions include Works 2002 – 2007, Galerie Bertrand & Gruner, Geneva (2008), Portraits, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (2008) and The Hyena and Other Men, FOAM_Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam (2008). Recent group exhibitions include Nollywood, Warren Siebrits Contemporary, Johannesburg (2008); Reality Check: Contemporary art photography from South Africa, Galerie der Stadt, Sindelfingen (2007); An Atlas of Events at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2007); Faccia A Faccia: Il nouvo ritratto fotografico, FORMA, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milan (2007); and the 27th São Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo (2006). He was also included in ReGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, 2005-2025, Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne, Geneva and Aperture Foundation, New York (2005), an exhibition identifying 50 young photographers who will be considered great by 2025. He won first prize in the Portraits section of the 2006 World Press Photo competition, and was selected as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2007, with an exhibition touring South Africa until July 2008. In 2008 he won the KLM Paul Huf award.