HOUSE HUNTING & OUTSKIRTS

In his most recent publication, Excerpts from Silver Meadows (2013), Hido reflects on the street he grew up on in Kent, Ohio, in the mid-70s, an era with an aesthetic that can be seen throughout his photographs. In various interviews, Hido often avoids talk of his childhood but many of his photographs allude to a somewhat sordid past. Emily Farache describes the images from Silver Meadows as including “a wall punctuated by fist-size holes; a boy’s bike deserted at the edge of a creek; a phone off the hook in a filthy, empty room; a lonely stuffed animal in the corner of a barren room.” 

Some photographs featured in his books House Hunting (2002) and Outskirts (2002) include abandoned shopping carts, overturned mattresses, upturned chairs blocking doorways, and a very distinct children’s toy car hidden in the shadows. These key images suggest many different emotional connections, but most specifically a childhood attachment to poverty, alcoholism, and violence. Hido has commented on the spaces he chooses to photograph saying, “I was interested in the family drama that had occurred. A lot of my work is really about home and family (Farache).” While Hido will not comment on these attachments directly, the affiliation is still there. Through stories of his parents and his childhood memories, a tone of melancholy and grief emanates from almost every photograph. 

A key theme of Hido’s architectural photography is the physical absence of people, although he often does do portrait photography separately. While there are no people in his architectural photographs, the human presence is very much still apparent. The main motif Hido almost always has in his photographs is a light source; typically, doors or windows where the lights are left on or lampposts illuminating deserted streets. This gives off a distinctly human feel, for who left those lights on? For who is the lamppost lighting the way for?

While this is a common recurring theme, Hido implements other pieces of humanity to amplify the feeling that a person may or may not have just been in the scene. An image from Outskirts shows a small brick house with his signature window light source. The house is surrounded by about a foot of snow, but the snow is littered with many intersecting and fresh-looking tracks. Hiding around the corner is the tail-end of a car as if to imply the homeowner just returned and walked inside just seconds before the photo was taken.

This theme is very common but Hido will occasionally switch gears; another photo from House Hunting featuring snow depicts the end of a street and lacks a recognizable light source. This photo is one of few that was taken during the day and speaks to a strong sense of abandonment with snow piled high in driveways and no sign of human life. Photos like this are very uncommon from Hido, for he has said that the human element is very close to his artistic pursuits. “It's true that most of my photographs of homes at night have a light on in the window. That is a very important part of me as it implies that someone is in there (Augschoell).” This sense of abandonment ties back into Hido’s own personal struggles throughout his life.