Published in 2001, House Hunting is, on the one hand, a portrait of a certain America at that specific moment in history: this is an economically downtrodden place, dark and empty homes with the dirty laundry barely packed, or homes with the lights on but radiating no warmth. Simultaneously, this is a portrait of America — and specifically, suburban America — from any contemporary post-war decade: a raw look at white paint chipping off of picket fences.

From the publisher: « This stunning new book by Todd Hido is a perfect companion volume to his first title, House Hunting, which was named « Best First Monograph of 2001 » by Photo-Eye and is now a Limited Quantity title. Hido’s large-format color photographs of suburbia convey an aura of loneliness, mystery and isolation while managing, at the same time, to exude comfort and even warmth. His portraits of tract homes are imbued with an eerie softness, their exteriors glowing invitingly – or is it ominously? – in the cool night air. An essay by the eminent writer Luc Sante, entitled « Stranger, » brilliantly echoes Hido’s work and is a fine introduction to the book.

For one thing, he didn’t want to be seen as a ‘a one trick pony.’ After the critical and general success of House Hunting and Outskirts, Todd Hido wanted to create a book that had no homes in it. He also made a concerted effort to shoot primarily in the daytime. In that way, Roaming, which is a book of landscape photographs taken over ten years and published in 2004, demonstrates a purposeful shift in Hido’s work. Roaming is a physical move out of the driveway and onto the open road, once the sun has risen.

Psychologically, however, this book of landscapes exhibits the same rumination of his previous books. It demonstrates a meditation — or preoccupation — over how people live. The photographer or viewer may have left the hazy suburban ‘home’ portrayed in House Hunting and Outskirts, but the sensation of it remains. Go as far as you can, but you never leave yourself. Rather than consecutive, the photographs in Roaming feel persistent; a reoccurring feeling that rattles between the internal and external world, behind the windshield, no matter the scenery outside.

Todd Hido’s striking monograph, Between the Two, weaves photographs of abandoned houses together with portraits of anonymous models in motel rooms that have obviously seen better days. Between the Two comprises 35 photographs beautifully printed on matte art paper, and bound in an oversized format.

A Road Divided expresses that unconventional ‘natural’ beauty, particular to Hido’s work: the open road on a rainy day, seductive in its promise of freedom, but reigned in by fences and traffic signs. Order and containment despite a perceived desire for breaking out. Persistent in Hido’s work is the idea of coming back (to an emotion, if not a place) despite leaving, but this time with the weight of experience, maybe even a sort of resignation to the cyclical nature of the mind.

Excerpts from Silver Meadows is a challenging composition of portraits, landscapes, personal and vintage photographs and documents that tell a number of stories — or one story, in different ways. As always, those stories reveal themselves through shadows, and never under direct light. On the other hand, this is perhaps Hido’s most openly ‘personal’ work, crossing a previous border of apparent privacy.