[This series] is far from a paean to despair. Instead, it argues that it is in the darkest times that we must redouble our efforts to note the small and quiet moments of beauty in any form and to approach the changes in progress with as much hope and grace as possible.
- Todd Hido
Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present The End Sends Advance Warning, the latest pit-stop in a four-decade road trip by American Photographer Todd Hido.
Since the 1990s, Todd Hido has been known for his distinctive approach to photography, crafting narratives with loose suburban scenes, desolate landscapes, and stylized portraits. Capturing images from the driver’s seat through a windshield, Hido’s pictorialist sensibilities transform natural elements of condensation, dirt, and grit into painterly abstractions akin to watercolor. He masterfully blurs the lines between painting and photography, creating a body of work that unfolds gradually, delivering a profound sense of cinematic gravitas and a dreamy, almost surreal quality. In his latest series, The End Sends Advance Warning, Hido’s lens ventures beyond the usual setting of American Suburbia and looks for inspiration in the rugged terrain of the Hawaiian Islands, the shores of the Bering Sea, and the Nordic Fjords above the Arctic Circle.
Roadside photography, a genre explored extensively since the 1950s, counts notable works by Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Lee Friedlander, whose work can be characterized as a collective focus on encapsulating the essence of “America.” Todd Hido, rather than immersing himself in the environment, maintains his vantage point from within his vehicle. Opting for this limited visual perspective, he injects an element of enigma, detachment, and yearning into his work. The resulting image is one of unattainable desire. Both Hido and his viewers are forever ensnared on the opposite side of the car windshield, a threshold they can never quite traverse.
Todd Hido: The End Sends Advance Warning will be on view from November 2nd, 2023 through January 14th, 2024. The opening reception is on November 2nd from 6 - 8 PM.
