The first solo show in New York of photographs by Pieter Hugo, including the Hyena Men series, opens tomorrow night at Yossi Milo Gallery. I stopped in yesterday during the installation to preview the exhibit and to meet the man.

The South African photographer originally found out about the animal charmers depicted here through a cell phone picture that turned up in a local newspaper with the caption, 'The Streets of Lagos.' There was no further information, so he began a search. Eventually he met Adetokunbo Abiola, a Nigerian journalist, who agreed to locate the troup and then travel with him, acting as translator. The result is a spectacular collection of photographs just released by Prestel.

Left to right: Mallam Galadima Ahamadu with Jami, Nigeria, 2005; The Hyena Men of Abuja, Nigeria, 2005; Nura Garuba and friend with their monkey, 2005. Photographs (c) Pieter Hugo, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery.

Eight images from the series are on view through January 12. Printed at a colossal scale, they present a secret culture of mythic proportions. This band of animal handlers of the Hausa tribe are all related to each other and are practicing a tradition passed down to them from generation to generation. They travel from town to village like itinerant minstrels, entertaining the public with the hyenas, performing baboons, and snakes in their charge. Wearing awe-inspiring regalia based on traditional textile designs, but amped up to a level that is theirs alone, they create a spectacle that always draws a crowd.

The five-by-five-foot prints require the viewer to stand back in order to take in the substance presented. The net effect is compelling, to say the least. These formal portraits are carefully staged to highlight the contradictions that prevail as this menagerie roams through an oil-rich country in which the majority live in poverty.

In a photograph in the book, we see a man leading an unmuzzled hyena through a public market. I asked Pieter, who lived with the troubadours for a couple of weeks on his second visit, if this wasn't kind of risky. "Yes, of course," he said, "but it's all part of the spectacle." "Yet the men seem so serious in your portraits." "True enough," he said, "but on the whole, they like to have fun, and to stir things up.

In the introduction, Pieter writes, "What I found fascinating was the hybridization of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals - sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel....These pictures depict much more than an exotic group of traveling performers in West Africa. The motifs that linger are the fraught relationships we have with ourselves, with animals, and with nature."

In addition, three portraits from the Wild Honey Collectors of Nigeria and Ghana are also on view. The opening reception and book signing is Thursday, November 29 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

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