Pieter Hugo: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

This substantial monograph traces the career of South African photographer Pieter Hugo through a series of his most iconic and controversial projects—each probing the shifting landscapes of race, representation and performative identity in a globalised world. Spanning more than a decade of work, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was published to accompany the artist's major retrospective at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and reveals the full force of Hugo’s unsettling vision.

With projects set in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Liberia, South Africa, China and the United States, Hugo’s images are arresting for their directness and ambiguity. His subjects meet the camera’s gaze with a stark, often confrontational intensity—hyenas and their handlers, masked performers, children in landfill sites, or stylised portraits that blur the line between the documentary and the theatrical. The cover image—drawn from his series made in China—epitomises this tension: lavishly adorned, defiantly posed, both seductive and unsettling.

Through essays and interviews, the book reflects on the ethical weight of representation in Hugo’s practice, which walks a razor’s edge between empathy and spectacle. This is not a catalogue of projects but a sustained meditation on the artist’s central question: how do we see and allow ourselves to be seen?

Technical Sheet
Object: Photobook
Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Artist / Author: Pieter Hugo
Date: 2017
Technique / Printing Method: Offset printing
Medium / Materials: Softcover with flaps
Edition: First edition
Signed: No
Dimensions (cm): Approx. 29.5 × 24 cm
Language: English
Pages: 240
Publisher / Editor: Prestel / Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
ISBN: 9783791356539
Condition: Fine
Provenance: Private Collection