Pieter Hugo: Solus Volume 1. Concerning Atypical Beauty and Youth Flitsaanbieding

In Solus Vol.1 Pieter Hugo reflects on the values that constitute the fashion industry’s shifting aesthetic through a series of straightforward portraits of street-cast models. Hugo found himself captivated by sitters with unconventional and atypical looks, particularly before they underwent fashion’s machinations of wardrobe, makeup and hair. Hence, this invitation to the models was ‘Simply present yourself’. This typological study highlights a gap that questions fashion’s commodification of youth and the ‘outsider’ while embracing the beauty of peculiarity worn with a acute awareness and the paradox within us of craving both difference and conformoty.