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Todd Hido's House Hunting
Photographer's Moody, Lonely Images of Suburbs at Night
 Listen to commentator Louise Rafkin's photo ride-along with Todd Hido.
March 14, 2002 -- Photographer Todd Hido grew up on Denise Drive, a cul-de-sac in an Ohio suburb. Though he lives in the city now -- the San Francisco Bay Area to be exact -- he's still attracted to the suburbs as subjects for his work. He has a new book, House Hunting, and recently he took commentator Louise Rafkin along on an outing to the suburbs.
"I grew up in a place like this," Rafkin says of her scouting trip with Hido. They were in search of another house for Hido to capture on film -- another anonymous, seemingly vacant suburban dwelling to add to Hido's collection. His photos, like the houses, are numbered but not named. "Like so much of suburbia," Rafkin says.
After some slow cruising of a quiet South San Francisco neighborhood, Hido spots a house with the right combination of light and shadow, color and darkness.
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"It's something you can always find -- this place on the outskirts of town that kind of feels like home."
Photographer Todd Hido
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He sets up his camera across the street from a boxy, two-story house, then sets the exposure for 10 minutes -- it takes that long, because the only available light comes from a single streetlight.
The result is an image that's both comforting and strangely disquieting. More often than not, there's a blue light from television sets tracing the edges of the curtained windows.
"Most suburbs are very similar, no matter where you go in the United States," Hido tells Rafkin. "It's something you can always find -- this place on the outskirts of town that kind of feels like home."
Other Resources
• Hido's book is published by Nazraeli Press.
ISBN 3-923922-96-5
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