Juxtapoz Magazine – La Cucaracha: Pieter Hugo in Mexico

Known for photographing communities on the periphery of society in Africa, South African artist Pieter Hugo similarly immersed himself in Mexico City and in regions of Mexico including Hermosillo, Oaxaca de Juárez and Juchitán, during several month-long trips in 2018-19. Prompted to make work in Mexico for an exhibition on the theme of sex and death, the resulting photographs embody Mexican attitudes on the subjects in both deliberately staged vignettes and in raw, vibrantly colored images of everyday people, landscapes and objects. As the artist describes his obsession with the country, “Mexico’s anarchic, visceral energy got under my skin and sucked me in”.