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An open book displays a portrait of a person with pale, clouded eyes and a textured, weathered face. They wear a white T-shirt featuring a black silhouette of running animals.

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain compile a striking book of undead friends

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Date
11 December 2012

You should know by now that we’re big fans of Damien Poulain and his broad approach to design and publishing. We also love the raw photography of South African Pieter Hugo. So it should come as no surprise that we’re thrilled to discover the two men are collaborating again, on a book of Pieter’s photos with a powerful sense of the undead.

There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends is a selection of portraits of Pieter and his friends all shot digitally and in colour. By a complex process of colour channel manipulation the images are transformed into these revealing monochrome portraits, that highlight the melanin in each of his subjects’ skin. Through these images Pieter hopes to highlight the errors of our racial distinction by revealing that the basic elements are the same in each of us. Rather less importantly, each of the portraits transforms each sitter into an archetypal Hollywood zombie, giving them an immediacy that’s impossible to ignore.

A black book cover featuring a monochrome portrait of a person looking directly at the camera. They have pale, clouded eyes and a solemn expression.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a black and white profile portrait of a person wearing a checked shirt. The image is set against a plain white background on the right-hand page.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book displays two black and white portraits of a person with dark, smudged makeup across their face and neck. They wear a white collared shirt and look towards the camera in the first image and to the side in the second.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a black and white portrait of a person with a short, blunt haircut and a weathered face. They wear a dark, hooded leather jacket and look directly at the camera.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a stark, high-contrast portrait of a person with a weathered face and pale eyes. They look directly at the camera, wearing a dark jacket over a white T-shirt.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a black and white portrait of a person looking directly at the camera. They wear a dark jacket over a T-shirt with the word “PROVISATIE” visible at the neckline.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book displays two black and white portraits of a person wearing a white shirt. In the left image, they look directly at the camera; in the right, they are seen in profile.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a portrait of a person wearing a striped blazer and a white collar. Their face is covered in dark, textured makeup.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

An open book shows a black and white portrait of a person looking directly at the camera. They wear a hooded zip-up jacket over a dark shirt, with a weathered expression and pale eyes.
Above

Pieter Hugo and Damien Poulain: There’s A Place in Hell for Me and My Friends

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About the Author

James Cartwright

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James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

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