artist visits

With his experience living in suburbs, Todd Hido grasps the idea of "home" and depicts it in an interesting way. The ambience of lighting from the moon and street lights hits the house which creates a feeling curiosity of who lives there. When Todd spoke in front of the art department, he gave a lot of insight on what his process was. Even though most of his work was in the darkroom, it was apparent what his passion was for, finding a perfect shot, even if it takes hours of driving around. I found his images interesting because of the quality of his method. He took a lot of time framing and exposing his shots. He spent even more time in the darkroom, testing out different colors and sizes until his final print was made in the way he wanted. The houses depict a variety of homes including apartments and trailers. The lights on in the window show that someone is there and lives there. But who? Even though the photographs have a lot of concept, the viewer determines what it is and what this house represents.

After he showed the slides of his house photos, he posted images that were successful but not as much as the ones previous to them. They were of women, usually in a bed or a bedroom. Even though they were interesting when it came to portraying the female body, the composition and seeming purpose to these shots were a little less apparent to me. Even though a photographer works in more than one subject, I believe his work is stronger in the darkroom. With the negative of a female, the color adjustments are more than limited.