I recently found an interesting photography project while scrolling through my Tumblr dashboard. The project, by Pieter Hugo, is called "Looking Aside" and is strictly photos of unique individuals from the shoulders up. Pieter Hugo specifically picked individuals who are seen as the least photogenic by society. His subjects include albino individuals from Johannesburg, the blind, the homeless and the elderly. He also includes photos of himself and his family in the project. The point of Pieter's project was to force viewers to come face to face with those individuals we may see on the street, but turn and look away from because of their appearance. When I first viewed the project, I was simply clicking through the reel of photos, and was near the end when I glanced down at the caption and realized the individuals were from Johannesburg in Africa. Their lack of pigment caused them to be unidentifiable to a specific background or ethnicity on first sight; I began to realize that maybe this group of individuals were being 'looked aside' in our society because of their inability to be identified on sight, making them seem peculiar and unusual. Personally, I thought this was a beautiful thing. Hugo's ability to convey such a deep and profound message in his project and leave his viewers confronting their fears and prejudices is remarkable. He has many other projects similar to these, all found on the website.
Looking Aside
No comments:
Post a Comment