Todd Hido has been developing his series for over 25 years – series which he prefers to present in book format and at exhibitions. Time and again they capture stories that seem both familiar and unknown, both appealing and unsettling. His style has become unmistakeable: mysterious suburban scenarios; roads and landscapes devoid of people; photographs taken primarily in gloomy weather. On occasion, rare interiors or portraits slip into the flow of images. The photographer captured his motifs predominantly in the USA, not far from where he lives; but his new photo book also took him from the Hawaiian Islands to their meteorological opposites – the coast of the Bering Sea and the northern fjords above the Polar Circle.
How did the title of your new book come about?
The line comes from the essay by Alexander Nemerov, who was so generous as to write something about my work in my previous book, Bright Black World. His essay was so moving and, in fact, that first line just pierced me when I read it: “The End Sends Advance Warning”. I’m such a visual person, yet I adore words – I often just have a short little phrase or sentence in my head. Those few words lead me around. The moment I read that first sentence, I knew it perfectly described scenes I had already been shooting, but hadn’t been able to describe in words.
The title sounds very alarming.
In a way, I think of it as the follow-up to Bright Black World, which came out in 2018 and shows landscapes covered in snow and fire and drenched in darkness. The End Sends Advance Warning may have an even bleaker-sounding title, but it is, at the end of the day, a love story. A personal one, but also one about being in love with the world, no matter how disastrous it is. Finding beauty in as many everyday situations as possible, because without that there is despair. We’re living in a really difficult time – there are so many sources of anxiety and very real fears, which makes it easy to feel overwhelmed. But I think that finding hope and beauty out there in the world, and showing that in images, is something that’s very much needed at this moment. It’s so important to me that the meaning of the image resides in the viewer, and that people bring their own experiences and emotions to each photograph. I’m not trying to direct anybody how to respond, I’m simply asking the viewer to look and feel.
The new book looks even more lavishly designed.
Sequencing is such a key part of my process, and in this book there is a decided shift – through a carefully sequenced narrative string of pictures that provide moments of warmth and lightness. In addition to some family pictures, there are also small, specially inserted motifs. I see those as little echoes – remembrances of the past, small images like snapshots, tucked into the binding. In my mind they serve as a reverie of some inkling of something that may have happened there prior, or a daydream of the future.
You not only produce books, you are also a passionate collector?
Something I realized very, very long ago is that photo books are almost the perfect medium for photography. Prints on a wall play a truly important role, but there’s something about a book that is quite incredible – over decades, I have collected about 8500 photo books that really mean something to me. Like the prints I have, hanging on my walls at home, I wanted to have them in my space to inspire me – as they do on a daily basis.
As a book connoisseur, you recently put together a selection for the new Leica Gallery in New York?
Yes, for the new store in New York I picked a meticulously curated selection of books that are accessible to other photographers, and most are readily available as well. And that includes some of the most relevant books I’ve learned from in my career.
How long have you been working with Leica cameras?
I’ve been using a Leica since I met Jason Momoa in September 2020. He is a passionate and long-time Leica user, and very kindly gave me an S3 while he was making a documentary about my work. I can say it truly refined what I do, and made it better. My main go-to camera is the S3, but I also have a Leica SL2.
What are you currently working on?
I have six exhibitions in the next year. Half of them at Leica Galleries, and I’m working on making something unique and different that shows the process of how I work, and how I love to assemble images next to each other to create a web of different meanings.
The exhibitions are also linked to workshops. What are the most important topics for you that you would like to pass on to the participants, and perhaps also to younger up-and-coming photographers?
I love teaching. Really inquisitive students bring out the knowledge that I have, all the things that I have collected in my mind since the 1980s. I really enjoy sharing that experience and, in doing so, it sharpens it and helps refine it. I feel like teaching inherently has that quality. It’s a gift to be asked what you might know by another.
EXHIBITIONS: A Series of Several Small Decisions, Leica Gallery Los Angeles (April 11 to May 27); Leica Store San Francisco (April 18 to June 8), Leica Gallery Boston (April 25 to June 7); Leica Gallery New York (September 5 to October 29). Workshops complement the exhibitions.
BOOK: The End Sends Advance Warning, 104 pages, 80 colour images, 9 inserted pictures and brochures, 35.5 × 43.1 cm, English, Nazraeli Press
Further information in the Todd Hido portfolio in LFI 3.2024.
Born on August 25, 1968 in Kent, Ohio, USA, Todd Hido studied at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He earned his M.F.A. in 1996 from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. His worked has been widely exhibited and appear in numerous collections. He prefers to publish his series in photo books, which number 15 to date. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find out more about his work on his website and Instagram page.
