The In Store Book Review: Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood

Oct 5, 2009

The In Store Book Review: Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood

Unfortunately, we cannot always afford the books we like and see, and only the really smart book publishers send titles our way. So, to deliver you an inside look at really great books, we decided to go renegade and just photograph them in Book Stores. Above is Nollywood, a fascinating oversized photo book by Pieter Hugo, published by Prestel, and available at The Strand.

4 Comments, Comment or Ping

blkbrrry

i just saw the exhibit this saturday. awesome.

Oct 5th, 2009
Nate

uh……….whats up with Blackula?

Oct 5th, 2009
Nigerian-American

Simply racist. Oh, I get it…its so sublime and like different right? Not really. White guy goes to Africa, zeroes in on what he finds to be eccentric (because there are no lousy B-movie caricatures in the US/wherever) and takes pictures of them. Ultimately, he does nothing but present the same lame images portraying Africans with absolutely no agency. Lifeless Africans. The irony is the subjects are actually actors – the most demonstrative of artists. No exposition of how they got in character, no dimension, no nothing. I need to go barf. Thanks.

Problem 1 – these images are not “typical” of Nollywood movies. They are characters on the extreme end.

Problem 2 – Great. help unenlightened people conflate made up imagery with “real Africa” (see Kimberly comment). Of course, one and the same. Yes, there are actually horned people in Africa. sigh.

Problem 3 – encoded mythologies. Ha. How about you actually speak to a Nigerian sometimes. Its simply not the deep, titillating stuff of your wet dreams. These are renderings of the imaginations of random people no more no less. The “mythologies” are as relevant to Nigeria life as casper is relevant to American life.

But please ignore me. I simply can’t understand my world the way you can.

Oct 15th, 2009
Nigerian Lady

I have to say this is the most disgusting portrait of Nigerians I have ever seen. I watch Nollywood movies all the time and I really had to comment when I saw these pictures.
NO, Our Nigerian Stars absolutely DO NOT dress up like this either on or off screen.
I do not recognize any of the people he used in the pictures. Oprah showed one of our leading ladies (Geneviene Nnaji) when she discussed Nollywood on her show of the famous people.
If you want to know who Nollywood stars are, a simple search on google will show you the pictures. Other Nollywood Stars include Rita Dominic, Ramsey Nouah, Funke Akindele, Emeka Ike, Liz Benson, Stephanie Okereke, Jim Iyke, Desmon Elliot, not to mention the rest.
I am so angry at these photos.

Nov 9th, 2009