Todd Hido is an American artist
Episode 400: This episode was made possible with the kind support from my 2004 VW grocery-getter, which my kid calls Samurai X. Artists William Mokrynski and Ben Pfau also made it possible. I’ll explain, but without further ado, I am happy to break in episode 400 with Todd Hido.
Credit: William Mokrynski
This episode seems like a long time in the making. We recorded it driving through Germany in September between workshops. As my car does not have air conditioning, and since it was a warm September, you will hear us between takes gasping for air before we opened the windows to cool down. It was a comical session, including my two broken arms, which I broke out of the casts to attend both workshops, but all in a great conversation between two Midwest boys abroad. We covered lots of material on our drive through Germany, not least of which was Todd’s new book, The End Sends Advance Warning, published by Nazraeli Press with an essay by Alexander Nemerov.
From: The Ends Sends Advance Warning Nazraeli Press
Todd has been incredibly kind to me. He has done workshops with me several times in Europe and has always been accommodating. We are both considerable photobook nerds, so it will not surprise many of you to listen to the depth of the connection that we have there. We ended up speaking quite a bit about books on the trip the, the photography scene in general, and Todd’s place in it. We talked about Jim Goldberg, Larry Sultan and Todd’s background growing up in Ohio before his sojourn to study photography out East. It was a fruitful conversation marked with great insight and general camaraderie.
Todd’s new book explores an idea of hope filtered through the haze of anxiety, both ecological and philosophical. The End Sends Advance Warning is in-line with todd’s work, but there is something slightly anxious and foreboding in the work, even more than what can be found in House Hunting. Not one to politicize his work, Todd may not agree exactly to this position, but I find it stark, illuminating and perhaps prescient of times to come. We spoke about it at length. Please tune into our episode. It was an honor to record despite the sweat!
