Over the course of the project, Pieter captured a completely a new side of death – completely different to what he is used to. But it’s precisely this grey area – the feeling of the unknown – that he finds most interesting. In his younger years, Pieter began taking pictures because it gave him an “excuse” to go out into the world, exploring and engaging “with the strange and conflicted place of South Africa, where I grew up,” he tells It’s Nice That. “It allowed me to figure out where I fit into it; I think this is what I’m still doing 30 years on.”
During apartheid South Africa – a period in time that saw institutionalised racial segregation in the continent from 1948 until the early 199s – Pieter bore witness to much of its authoritarian political culture. “Everything we saw was edited and controlled, and I wanted to see more,” he adds,” I wanted to see for myself. Photography is about seeing, I wanted to look and I wanted to look at what was obvious to me – even then, in a very fucked up place.” With this in mind, you can now see why he marks his photography style as one that’s fuelled by controversy. He utilises his camera as a tool for making sense of that which is around him, sparking conversations about the places and people that often go overlooked.
Within La Cucaracha, history plays a key player. Driving around, heading into bars, on social media – basically “everywhere” – Pieter would search for his subjects, landing on a diverse demographic that ranges from lawyers to refugees. Sitting alongside a broad cast of people, revolutionary symbols and Mexican references are featured in abundance, which serves as a reminder to the viewer of the country’s past. An example of this is Emiliano Zapata, the great revolutionary of 1910, to David Alfaro Siqueiros, the painter and communist militant whose murals and dictatorship is referenced within Pieter’s work. Then, suddenly, the choice in title becomes clear: the cockroach is a detested, an unsettling and pesky creature that lives far beyond anything thrown at it, whether it’s a natural disaster or the man made.
In one particular photograph, The Wedding Gift, a young bride cradles an iguana, and the sheer contrast of her white dress and the barbed fence behind creates an unnerving feeling. Then, upon further investigation, Hugo has incorporated the iguana motif because it symbolising contentment, as well as the satisfaction with what one has in terms of sex and mortality. Elsewhere, a naked man presents a snake in Snake Charmer – the animal in Mexican mythology indicates veneration, worship and honour, and often is used to connote power and resurrection; a common symbol of humanity. Each image is filled with hidden meaning that, once uncovered, presents a visual narrative of Mexican mythology and conflict, something that counteracts the stereotypical depiction of sugar skulls. The result is a series of photographs that, like the cockroach, will serve the test of time.
La Cucaracha is currently on view at Huxley-Parlour Gallery, London, until 14 March 2020, with a publication available at RM.