It began as a cell-phone picture sent to him by a friend: a group of men walking down a road in Nigeria with a hyena on a chain. It is currently a less-than-subtle reference in Beyoncé Knowles’s most recent music video (above). So goes the unpredictable trajectory of Pieter Hugo’s body of work “The Hyena & Other Men.”It was a local journalist, Adetokunbo Abiola, who introduced Hugo to the Gadawan Kura’ (which loosely translates as “hyena handlers”), “a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crows and sell traditional medicines,” Hugo writes in his book’s introduction. His photographs of these men—and one young girl—with their animals are arresting and intimate.
“It isn’t the first time someone has used my images for a music promo,” Hugo told me when I asked him about Beyoncé’s video. “Nick Cave’s Grinderman project used much more than stylistic reference for his ‘Heathen Child’ video. I can count at least a dozen direct visual copies from my ‘Nollywood’ series in the video. I am a huge fan of Nick Cave, so in that instance it’s flattering. I don’t particularly like the Beyoncé song. It all seems so derivative—the music, the imagery… I’m sure the Hyena Men are wondering if they’re going to get paid!”Here’s a selection of images from Hugo’s Hyena Men project. His latest book, “Permanent Error,” reveals the devastating consequences of toxic waste on one community in Ghana.