For nearly three decades, Todd Hido has photographed around North America creating haunting narratives through images of suburban scenes, desolate landscapes, and stylized portraits. His work is best known for a cinematic and dreamy aesthetic that communicates to viewers in a distinct visual language rich with psychological tension and emotion. He speaks of his works in the language of memory:
“I think the people who really connect with my work see something of themselves in it; they don’t necessarily see me,” says Hido. “The thing I hear most often is, ‘that reminds me of…That reminds me of the town I grew up in. That reminds me of this house or that girlfriend. That weather brings me back to this point in my life.’ Take an image of a suburban street,” the artist continues. “Some people see the most fucked up place they’ve ever been, while others go back to their wonderful childhoods. I learned early on that ambiguity was one of art’s best tools.”
Hido has produced a number of publications, including House Hunting (2001); Outskirts (2002); Roaming (2004); Between the Two (2007); A Road Divided (2010); Excerpts from Silver Meadows (2012); and Intimate Distance (2016). In 2018, he published Bright Black World, his first series extensively photographing terrain outside the US—primarily in the Northern European landscape— and chronicling a decidedly new psychological geography. Many of these new images underscore the influences of Nordic mythology and specifically the idea of Fimbulwinter—which translates into the ‘endless winter’— alluding to and providing form for this notion of an apocalyptic, never-ending winter.
