Drawn to document the peripheries of African societies, Pieter
Hugo worked with the Gadawan Kura, or “hyena handlers,” who perform and sell medicines
and talismans, creating haunting photographs that convey not only uncontrolled urbanization
but also the pathos of cross-species relationships. “There was something very strange
going on between the guys and the hyenas,” Hugo said. “These animals had been taken
out of the wild as pups. They couldn’t return. They were entirely dependent on
these guys for food. And these men were dependent on the animals for their livelihoods.
They needed each other, but it wasn’t an easy symbiosis.”