Californian Wildflowers is a portrait series by South African photographer, Pieter Hugo. In 2014, Hugo was an artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and during his stay his wife visited the Tenderloin and shared with him how the Tenderloin reminded her of Cape Town. Hugo was intrigued, and he carved out time to visit the neighborhood. In his many days of visiting the area he met people from all walks of life and who faced many different challenges--be it victims of the 2008 recession, war veterans or people experiencing mental health problems, but most importantly he found a sense of community that exists in the Tenderloin. Notwithstanding their circumstances, which are real and inescapable, Hugo found that there is something quite ecstatic in the poses and gestures of the people he photographed. In revisiting these images and exhibiting them for the first time in California accompanied by a coffee table book, Californian Wildflowers portrays the beauty and commonality that exists in all humanity independent of one's housing status.
Pieter Hugo (b. 1976 Johannesburg) currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa. He has had museum solo exhibitions at Museu Coleção Berardo; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Fotografiska in Stockholm, MAXXI in Rome and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, among others. Hugo has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Modern, the Folkwang Museum, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and the São Paulo Biennale.
His work is represented in prominent public and private collections such as, Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuesum, the Museum of Modern Art, V&A Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Walther Collection, Deutsche Börse Group, Folkwang Museum and Huis Marseille.
Hugo received the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d'Arles Festival and the KLM Paul Huf Award in 2008, the Seydou Keita Award at the Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet and was chosen as the ‘In Focus’ artist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Pieter Hugo (b. 1976 Johannesburg) currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa. He has had museum solo exhibitions at Museu Coleção Berardo; the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Fotografiska in Stockholm, MAXXI in Rome and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, among others. Hugo has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Modern, the Folkwang Museum, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and the São Paulo Biennale.
His work is represented in prominent public and private collections such as, Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuesum, the Museum of Modern Art, V&A Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Walther Collection, Deutsche Börse Group, Folkwang Museum and Huis Marseille.
Hugo received the Discovery Award at the Rencontres d'Arles Festival and the KLM Paul Huf Award in 2008, the Seydou Keita Award at the Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet and was chosen as the ‘In Focus’ artist for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.