Green Point Common, offered here, is a poignant work from Pieter Hugo’s deeply introspective series Kin (2006-13). In this one photograph, the artist’s aesthetic sensibilities and social preoccupations coalesce: the vibrant shades of green stand out against the dense fog of Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard and the lying figure compels the viewer to reflect on humanity and the reality of South Africa’s social adversities. The dramatically windswept tree, which holds an almost sculptural form, can be read as a metaphor for a country continuing to grow beyond its weighted and complex history into a hopeful future. Over an eight-year period, Hugo navigated between private and public spaces in his homeland, investigating his own sense of identity and belonging in South Africa’s post-apartheid condition. He described the Kin project as ‘an engagement with the failure of the South African colonial experiment and [his] sense of being “colonial driftwood”.’

Born in 1976, Pieter Hugo grew up during apartheid South Africa, turning 18 in 1994 – the year in which legislated apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela came to power. A self-taught photographer, he was given his first camera, a gift from his father, around the age of 12 and turned to photography as a means of looking and questioning on his own terms. After starting his career in photojournalism during which time he honed his technical skills, he soon centred his creative output on personal projects. Over the last two decades, Hugo has continued to address the structures of social storytelling in his work, focusing his lens on the periphery of society not only in his native country and in Africa but also in the United States, China, and most recently, Mexico.

Hugo is a recipient of various awards, including the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d’Arles (2008) and the Foam Paul Huf Award (2008). He as held solo exhibitions in such prestigious institutions as the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the National Gallery of Art, London; Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne and MAXXI, Rome. His work is held in the permanent collections of institutions worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris and Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne each holds a print of Green Point Common, 2013.