Todd Hido (born 25 August 1968) is an American photographer. He has produced 17 books, had his work exhibited widely and included in various public collections. Hido is currently an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Early life and education

Hido was born August 25, 1968, in Kent, Ohio, and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1986. He graduated in 1991 with a B.F.A. from Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Between 1991 and 1992 he studied at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1996 he gained an M.F.A. from California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California. Among his professors was the photographer Larry Sultan, who later become his mentor.

Life and work

Much of Hido's earlier work involves photographs of urban and suburban housing across the U.S.. Hido accidentally approached what would be one of his best-known themes, when driving at night on the West Coast, he started photographing houses in different neighborhoods. The houses often seemed isolated and had mostly in common the presence of a window with the light on. From this research it came his book House Hunting, published in 2001. He then started to include figures, mostly female nudes in interiors, and also to depict rural landscapes. In 2006 he published the monograph Between The Two. Hido combines interior photos and portraits taken of models and actresses, maintaining an aesthetic similar to that of its first publication. Also in this book there are night shots of buildings. No text or description were inserted, so as to leave the viewer total freedom of interpretation. In 2018, he released Bright Black World, his first work photographed outside the U.S. with environmental overtones. Hido says he is influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, Edward Hopper, Stephen Shore, Robert Adams, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Emmet Gowin, Larry Sultan, Alfred Stieglitz, Andreas Gursky and Rineke Dijkstra. Commissioned by Italian brand Bottega Veneta, he photographed actress Lauren Hutton as well as models Joan Smalls and Vittoria Ceretti for the brand's spring/summer 2017 advertisements.

Publications

Publications by Hido

Smaller publications by Hido

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Awards

Collections

Hido's work is held in the following permanent collections: • Art Institute of Chicago, IL: 9 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX: 1 print (as of 1 December 2024) • Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA • Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH • Di rosa, Napa, CA • George Eastman House, Rochester, NY: 6 prints • Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO: 2 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA: 58 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI: 1 print (as of 2 December 2024) • Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL: 2 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX: 3 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, UK: 2 prints • New York Public Library, NY • North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC: 4 prints (as of 2 December 2024) • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA: 6 prints (as of 1 December 2024) • Whitney Museum of American Art, NY: 6 prints (as of 1 December 2024)

General references