Pieter Hugo long ago declared the death of portrait photography. You can find his references going back nearly 20 years. When I met Hugo at the end of last year at the Stevenson gallery in Parktown North, where he was hanging  the works for his exhibition Polyphonic, he asked: “What can you learn about a person from a photograph?”

The answer is almost nothing, “especially if you strip away the context”, he says. But that never stopped him pointing his camera at people. Polyphonic is a selection of about 100 portraits, from the early 2000s to the present...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.