 |
But it is more than either
his subject matter or the immediacy of the photographic medium that engages
thought and empathy. Hido chooses to rely on available night lighting, which
requires lengthy exposures and contributes to the sense of suspended time in
his views. The atmosphere is often misty, softening the landscape's harshness
but also taking up the light in dim glowing patches that suggest a truly infernal
setting rather than the doubtless purgatorial reality of these lost spaces.
It is an isolating, threatening world that he sees in these anonymous places;
even cars take on the suggestion of large snuffling creatures lumbering around
the edges of meager, empty yards.
However, almost without exception, each of those very unexceptional
houses shows at least one window lighted from within, from a room screened
from the outside world by curtains or some other means of sealing in the life
there and warding off the lifelessness outside. The lighted window becomes
a beacon, or better, a surrogate hearth promising refuge, safety and human
company, all otherwise absent in a too-familiar yet alien land.
(Barry Hannegan is a freelance writer and the former director of historic
design programs for Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.)
|
|
