Rwanda 1994

Rwanda 1994

Artist Statement

I happened to start the work in Rwanda but I’ve been thinking about the year 1994 in relation to both countries over a period of 10 or 20 years. I noticed how the kids, ­particularly in South Africa, don’t carry the same historical baggage as their parents. I find their engagement with the world to be very refreshing in that they are not burdened by the past, but at the same time, you witness them growing up with these liberation narratives that are in some ways fabrications. It’s like you know something they don’t know about the potential failure or shortcomings of these narratives…

Most of the images were taken in villages around Rwanda and South Africa. There’s a thin line between nature being seen as idyllic and as a place where terrible things happen – permeated by genocide, a constantly contested space. Seen as a metaphor, it’s as if the further you leave the city and its systems of control, the more primal things become. At times the children appear conservative, existing in an orderly world; at other times there’s something feral about them, as in Lord of the Flies, a place devoid of rules. This is most noticeable in the Rwanda images where clothes donated from Europe, with particular cultural significations, are transposed into a completely different context.

Being a parent myself has shifted my way of looking at kids dramatically, so there is the challenge of photographing children unsentimentally. The act of photographing a child is so different – and in many ways more difficult – to make a portrait of an adult. The normal power dynamics between photographer and subject are subtly shifted. I searched for children who seemed already to have fully formed personalities. There is an honesty and a forthrightness which cannot otherwise be evoked. (Hugo, 2019)

Annotations

The work is from the series Rwanda 1994 where Pieter Hugo went around documenting young children who were not alive when the genocide took place and shows the impact on young children.

What is denoted?

The series depicts young children posing in part of Africa. The series stands out to the public about what has happened.

What is Connoted?

The connotations of the work that has been shown highlight the problems that the work has come together of the work that of problems that happened when Pieter Hugo photographed. The feeling is positive as they are not carrying the problems that have affected the parents which is positive from the way he has photographed with them being able to show the story from what has happened. The work shows the meaning of upset when you begin to understand what has happened in the genocide. They are all posed in the way that they wanted to as the photos all link to them

Who is the intended audience?

This project was aimed to highlight the problems that their parents faced in the genocide. It is done to highlight how the families have been caught up in the area. It is intended to bring more people to come together to understand what has happened in the country. How are you affected as a viewer?

How are you affected as a viewer? 

I am affected by looking at this work this stands out because of the way he has come around to photograph the work shown on the project, about how the children are not impacted by the genocide. I am affected by the work because of how the work has been updated to understand what is going on. It would be more powerful if I am not seeing this in large quantity at a gallery.

What makes this work significant to you (and or your project)?

The work is significant to the project because of the way he has got the composition in order for this all to come together. I am going to take the theme of the way they have come together in order to show the viewer with underlying information on here.

What are the strengths of the source you are looking at? What are the weaknesses of the work? (How would you do things differently? What do you think can be improved?)

The strengths of this work are that they all highlight what is going with what has gone on because of the way this has been all styled on the images. I do not like that some of the images are not stand out to me on the owners because they have not information when you look them up online to get more understanding with what is going on. I am planning on taking on the style that Pieter Hugo has worked on to make the work stand out to the viewers.

What ideas (or visual styles) will you take forward to think about in your work?

I am planning on taking the way that he has positioned the subject in the middle of the shots, I am planning on taking the message and working with the message.

What context have you seen the work in?

I have only seen this work on his website and online, this only allows me to see it from a digital preservative and is harder to get the magnetite of the power in the main photographers that he has worked.

Bibliography

Gefter, P., 2017. Pieter Hugo’s “1994”: Children and the Ghosts of National Trauma. [Online]
Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-children-of-bad-memories
[Accessed 6 12 2019].