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Intro
'The houses in Todd Hido's outdoor shots seem to glow in the dark. While the bright light that shines through the windows gives some indication that these structures are lived in, one can also sense their gloomy desolation. Isolated in the frame, almost like portrait subjects, the houses exist in a still twilight that can leave a viewer wondering whether someone is home watching television or absent owners are trying to ward off prowlers. Hido, lurking with his camera across the street, comes off as a benign but creepy surveillance aficionado, a private eye of domestic disarray.
'For his shots of interiors, Hido visited homes whose previous owners had failed to meet their mortgage payments and were evicted; now owned by banks, the places bear the marks of sad lives and hasty departures. His camera lingers on a few vestigial reminders: window curtains, a chandelier-style lighting fixture, and a stained mattress are almost all that remains as evidence of the former inhabitants. Hido doesn't dwell on the sociological, however: his interest, indicated by the care with which he modulates light and color, lies in the haunting quality of these spaces. In a sense, the photographs duplicate the banks' seizure of the houses by repossessing them in the name of art.
'Anonymity is one of Hido's most redolent themes. First, there is the anonymity of the houses themselves, which, as the repetitive exterior shots make clear, seem to have been designed and built not by a single intelligence but by some demented committee intent on foreclosing any possibility of individual spirit. Who creates these pathetic living spaces and dreary facades? But even more tantalizing is the question of who lives in them. Surely not people like us, we may be quick to assert, given the houses' absolute lack of aesthetic appeal. Hido, however, shows no sign at all of passing judgment on his absent subjects. His prints nearly redeem the horribly empty living rooms, bedrooms, and family rooms by bathing them in soft pastels. Out of doors, he photographs at dusk and in the area's storied fog to give the prints an unnatural but attractive glow.' -- Andy Grundberg, Artforum
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Action
Profile
Lecture
Mini-interview
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Interview
There is a very unsettling atmosphere throughout your photography, is this always intentional and why do you choose to shoot such sinister shots? Are you a moody guy?
Todd Hido: I'm actually not a moody guy at all! But I can clearly see that my work is. I guess I'm attracted to that cinematic feeling where something's about to happen. Kind of like a pregnant moment. I'm very much attracted to that kind of narrative element.
The quality of your images is incredible, what camera and film do you prefer to shoot with?
Todd Hido: I have been using the same camera for the last 20 years--a Pentax 6 x 7 medium format camera and I've been using Kodak Portra of 400NC film forever. One of the main reasons that my work looks the way it does is because I've printed in the darkroom myself. I'm still using all analog technology and I go to the darkroom a couple of times a week to print. This is a very important part of my process. In most of my work nothing is staged, I shoot like a documentarian, but I print like a painter, often my contact sheets look nothing like my final prints.
I could imagine shooting all those night scenes in neighbourhoods some of which don’t look all that appealing at times must have been a bit more exciting than the actual scenery. Did you run into problems with people wondering what you were doing in the dark around their homes?
Todd Hido: One time some guy thought I was his girlfriend’s ex-husband. That was scary until he figured out I wasn’t! But I most often go unnoticed even though I am very careful to not look like I am “lurking”. However, I never ask permission as people would mostly say no. I have tried a couple of times when I first started but got rejected right off the bat. It is a very hard process making art to begin with—just finding the right place is hard enough and half the battle. Sometimes I’ll drive around for 5-6 hours to find just the right spot—and then you find it at midnight you can’t knock on the door and ask. When I find it I just take it. I never ever stand in someone’s yard or on their property. The police have been called several times but after they “run me though the system” and find I am not a criminal they leave.
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Utilities
Todd Hido Official Website
TH interviewed @ Seesaw Magazine
TH @ Stephen Wirtz Gallery
Audio: TH Slideshow and Artist Talk
Audio: Todd Hido's House Hunting @ NPR
Todd Hido @ Facebook
Buy Todd Hido's books
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Show
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p.s. Hey. It's Wednesday aka cleaning/exile day here at the Recollets, and I'm starting the p.s. tardily this morning, and we're sure to be interrupted, and I'll be rushing a bit, and this will likely show up late no matter what, and all apologies for that. ** Oscar B, So, I told Chrystel my shower nozzle was broken at 5: 30 pm yesterday, and it was fixed by 10 am this morning. That must be some kind of Recollets record. Maybe I should tell her I broke the washing machines, ha ha. Talk to you later. ** David Ehrenstein, Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like most of the time when people kill themselves by jumping out of windows, they do it in Italy. There was that young, rising fashion model who did that in Milan just a few months ago. Coincidence, no doubt, but it's curious. ** Adjoun, Hi, Erik. Actually, the curator I was talking to is named Bart van der Heide. Do you know him? The Kunstverein was between shows when I was there, but the space is really nice, vast-ish and multi-roomed with great, high ceilings. Hm, a whole day on one poem, maybe the Hanlo one, is a great idea, actually. Yeah, nice. I'll give it a shot. Thanks, man. ** Memoirs of a Heroin, We're getting the flimsiest, microscopic snowfall here as I type. Maybe you too. That Mary story is awesome. ** Pilgarlic, No, just boxing. And talking heads. And American shows, mostly Csi-offshoots, dubbed into German. Not too impressive on first viewing. I wouldn't have known where to look for porn in Munich. It seemed like a city that wouldn't have porn, and, based on how wide-eyed everyone was at the explicitness of my reading, maybe my guess is right. Hope you're feeling better. Yeah, I remember when I could wolf down a huge bag of ultra-greasy onion rings and not miss a beat. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, Thomas! Thanks a lot, man. I've still got maybe a week of heavy combing and fiddling to go, but the cool thing about finishing the almost final draft is, I know the novel is going to work and exist. I wasn't totally sure until I hit the last paragraph. Michael told me about the novella. Really exciting news! As is your mega-closeness to its finish line. And I'm glad you're going to get back on the horse re: sending your novel out to publishers. Its process as total suck, but you gotta do it, man. Huge love right back at you, T. Really, really great to see you! ** Patrick deWitt, Thanks a lot, Patrick. I'm going to hold off on my own celebrations until the thing is emailed to my agent. But, yeah, it feels good. ** Pisycaca, Thanks, Montse. Yep, I'm almost there at long last. Life, here I come again. Mm, when I see you here in the Spring, you'll have to tell me what you liked about Zola Jesus. I'd like a second opinion. Nice about the Wavves show. I wonder if they're heading over here. Seems like they would. I only know the name Lower Dens, but not the music. I'll check it out. Love to you, my buddy. ** Hayden Derk, You're back! I don't even know you well at all, but I was kind of, I don't know, worried about that army thing. Anyway, you're post-whatever, and I'm glad to hear it, long story short. Wonderful new work on your blog, man. Everyone, whether you have or haven't already discovered the pretty amazing written works of Hayden Derk, there's some stellar new writings on his always great blog, and I so highly recommend you click yourself over there post-haste. Thanks for the congrats on my almost finished novel. What about you? Are you working on a novel or collection of writings or anything like that? Now there's a book I'd really love to read. ** Stan Czarnecki, Well, I'm equally glad to have you back, my friend. Both of those short films sound really, really interesting. You aren't going to put them on youtube or somewhere, are you? Is your film prof being supportive? Oh, you found and like Walser. Stunning, right? What have you read of his so far? ** Sypha, It's too early to know when the novel will published. HP had said maybe late 2011. But the thing is, they have to accept it first, and it's a pretty strange book, so we'll see. Twice before, I've had situations where books of mine that were anticipated and under contract with publishers were rejected -- Grove rejected 'The Sluts', and Ecco/Harper Collins rejected 'My Loose Thread' -- so I'm trying to feel cautious until the novel gets the official okay. But, best case scenario, it might be published late next year. Oh, yeah, Angela Carter can be really terrific. I should do some kind of post about her, actually. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Your close attention to my slave posts always does my heart a lot of good. Thank you *bow*. ** Schlix, Hey, Uli! Wow, it's great to see you, man! Welcome back! I was just freezing my ass off in your country not two days ago. I didn't know that my blog is linked at The Wire's homepage. That's pretty amazing. I'm a serious devotee of that magazine, as you probably now. Yeah, that's really cool and an honor. I'm really sorry to hear about the horrible phase you went through re: your job. I mean, feel more than free to talk about it, if you want. I hope that fact that you're in recovery mode means all that shit has settled down. Yeah, good to see you, man. ** Ishmael, Hey, Ish. Okay, cool. It'll get sorted, no doubt. Oh, that's great D. Velasco picked 'Them' for his Artforum top ten. What a nice guy with excellent taste! Oh, no big deal about the name thing. Whatev' Or is that whatevv'? ** _Black_Acrylic, I would totally take that snow of yours if I had mystical powers or something. Paris wards off snow for some weird reason. Location, atmospherics, I don't know. Step carefully, pal. ** Steevee, Hey. Well, yeah, those are tasty sounding samples. Hm. ** Chris Cochrane, Yeah, nice, right? We made art, man. It's official. ** Andrew, Oh, shit, I thought your computer was doing so well there for a while. Damn, sorry. So, what now? I miss 'Hoarders', sigh. ** Nb, You made it. Enjoy the day or two or hopefully even more while NYC seems like a post-Texas waking dream. Super congrats on getting the 26th story finished! Awesome! So, yeah, what will you do with it now? Do you feel limbered up to write a novel or thereabouts? Maybe we should all get together and make Skype conference call to Milkyballs just to show him we care. ** Misanthrope, Escorts tend to show more cock than slaves do. Kind of understandable when you think about it. I did read that story about Zahra Baker. That is up there with the grimmest things I've ever heard of, yeah. Fascinating and absolutely horrible. Hooray, dentist, 2 pm. Tell me everything. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Oh, I thought the concert might be a coffee house kind of thing where he couldn't miss you, and where he would look up from one of his guitar solos or whatever, spot you, and his eyes might mist over in gratitude and maybe even other emotions. You meet the most interesting people. I probably do too, but then they start talking to me in French, and I say I don't speak French, and then they leave. I like that Jackie O image. I could totally see it. Hm, I think I'll try to find that Ultra Violent magazine. I don't know it, but I know a place here that I bet will sell it. No, I'm not in the Burroughs documentary, but the guy who made it is the same guy who proposed doing that documentary about Michele Tea and me, but then I never heard anymore about that. My day: Worked on novel. I'm going through it chapter by chapter, fiddling and refining. I'm giving each chapter two cleanings, which I think should be enough. I think I'll have the first chapter completely finished today and will start on the second one. So, I did that mostly. I can't remember if I mentioned that I broke the nozzle in my shower yesterday. It fell from my hands and cracked open on the floor. Really cheap shit. It didn't land hard at all. Anyway, so I asked the Recollets to fix it, and they did first thing this morning, which is super fast for them. And I asked them about the internet again because everyone here is ready to throw their computers out their windows, it's so bad, and they said it will be fixed and new and great in two weeks. Which is what they said two weeks ago. Hm. I bought some food. Nothing interesting happened on that trip outside except for the fact that I had to wear gloves for the first time. I had coffee with Oscar and Kiddiepunk. We decided to see the Harry Potter movie tomorrow, so I'm excited. Gisele called to ask me how it went in Munich because she flew there last night for the 'Jerk' show tonight. I told her. She seemed interested. I ordered one of the two buche de noels that I'm going to be eating this Xmas. It's a cool one by the acknowledged master/genius designer of buche de noels, Christophe Michalak. You'll see a pic of it in a couple of days. I'm going to order the one, which is designed by Christian La Croix, this week. In the evening, I just did some blog building and watched this new kind of French game show where people have to solve scientific problems by doing experiments and stuff. It was okay. And, mm, I guess after that I slept, most likely. What was your Wednesday like, man? ** Ted, Hey, greetings, welcome. When you ask why there aren't African, Asian, or Latino guys 'on my site', I assume you're talking about the slave post yesterday, right? 'Cos they're here in general and in every other context. If so, well, first of all, there were five Latino guys in the slave post yesterday and two Asian guys. So, yeah. As for Africans, well, on the slave/master sites I use to make those posts, you almost never find African guys offering themselves as slaves, for reasons that seem quite understandable to me. Masters, sure, but slaves, almost never. Anyway, so I guess that's the answer, or the best one I can give you. ** Rigby, Hey. I think it was just the stuffed animal he was holding. His eyes look like they've seen a lot. Or it's an old picture. Could easily be. The readings are part of the job, basically, to me. Every once in a rare while, I think a reading really works. I did this one at the New Museum last month that I actually was very happy with it, but it was a fluke. I write for people who are alone or lost in their own thoughts and whose eyes are moving in a zigzagging motion down a page. Other contexts are a corruption, yeah. Terrible about Christopherson. Really sad, He was a year younger than me. I don't believe in reincarnation at all. I'm too logical a person. Reincarnation makes no sense to me at all. ** Creative Massacre, Oh, well, I still think it wasn't your fault, ha ha. That's friendship for you. Hope you're doing well today too. ** Bill, Hey. I'm not a huge Ginsberg fan myself. Well, apart from the early stuff. I might see the film just to see it, though. I'm more excited that 'Machete' is finally opening here, which kind of embarrassing, I guess. ** Frank Jaffe, Hey, Frank! Awesomeness to see you, man! Cool on the ongoing boyfriend stuff. And he bought you a Blake Butler novel, so he gets a brownie point from me right there. I'm glad Zach German's book is growing on you. I love that novel. It might be my favorite novel of the year. Excellent about getting John Waters there -- you'll love him; awesomest human being ever -- and the Queer Poetry thing too. And for wanting to read my poems. My poems aren't so off putting. Well, most of them. Well, some of them. I had a really great time in NYC with you too, Frank, and I hope we can hang out again and more lengthily. You still owe me a visit to Paris one of these days, don't forget. ** Killer Luka, Really? I thought they were quite an excellent batch. But I'm always more into what they say than the technicalities of their bods. Words make the slave or something? I don't know. Anyway, blah blah, I bet it's really cold where you are too, right? Hugs, love, and so much more. ** I made it through without an exile. That's crazy. See what you think of the photography of Todd Hido. I thought I'd pass him along to you today after Kiddiepunk passed him along to me. The circle of life. See you tomorrow.
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