From the Guardian:
While describing his work, Cape Town-based Pieter Hugo uses one clear word: “confrontational”. He’s not wrong, as his photography work tends to document landscapes and people from peripheral communities. Known for capturing South Africa’s marginalised groups, such as the blind, albinos and AIDS victims, his pictures featured in numerous solo exhibitions, in major museums such as The Hague Museum of Photography, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Fotografiska in Stockholm, plus group shows at the Tate Modern and the Folkwang Museum. His most recent body of work looks further afield to Mexico, where the photographer explores the country’s notion of death, sexuality and spirituality.

Currently on view at Huxley-Parlour, the series, titled La Cucaracha – which translates to ‘The Cockroach’ in Spanish – is a result of four trips to Mexico over a two-year period. With each visit spanning nearly a month, Pieter would travel to the industrialised zone of Mexico City, before venturing off into the wilderness and desert lands of Hermosillo, plus the mountainous regions of Ixtepec and San Cristóbal. His initial trip was spurred on by an invitation from Francisco Berzuna, who was curating an exhibition of South African art in the museum of Oaxaca at the time. He requested that Pieter made some new works for the show, which led to an inquest into the themes of sex and mortality – the focus points of the exhibition, aptly named Hacer Noche (which translates to ‘Crossing Night’).

Comprising portraits, landscapes, interior shots and still lifes, Pieter incorporates a mixed-format approach that enables a broad perspective of his subject. “Mexico has a particular ethos and aesthetic; there is an acceptance that life has no glorious victory, no happy ending,” he comments on the series. “Humour, ritual and a strong sense of community, plus an embrace of the inevitable make it possible to live with tragic and often unacceptable situations.”