Through a sprawling body of work made over the last 23 years, Hugo meditates on life, death, and the rites inbetween
Comprising more than 100 images taken over the last 23 years, What the Light Falls On is Pieter Hugo’s meditation on life – focusing on birth, death, and the rites between. The title is a response to photographer Helmar Lerski’s assertion that “in every human being there is everything; the question is only what the light falls on”. Hugo answers this by accumulating a vibrant archive of human presence. While his earlier projects took the form of photo essays built around defined themes, here he attempts to give a visual answer to one of life’s most profound questions: what it means to be alive.
 
Two key photographs bookend the project. One depicts the birth of Hugo’s first child, and the other his father on his deathbed. These poignantly convey an awareness of life’s transience; two images – one of arrival, one of departure – function as emotional anchors. In the middle, a sprawling range of moments that define the human condition engulf the viewer like a stream of consciousness.
 
Middle age, Hugo seems to suggest, is a moment when one can look in both directions without flinching. From this vantage point, Hugo moves through the project playing with the distance he places between himself and his subjects. His approach is free and soft, and it is this softening – an earned porosity, an openness – that gives the series its particular force.
 
What transpires is Hugo’s direct and composed approach, nurtured out of his willingness to be present and to sit in ambiguity rather than search for an easy resolution.
 
Text by Federica Angelucci