Todd Hido, #2319-b, série House Hunting, 1999
I photograph like a documentary filmmaker, but I print my images like a painter.
— Todd Hido
Born in 1968 in Kent, Ohio, Todd Hido lives and works in California. Trained at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the California College of the Arts in Oakland, he established himself in the 1990s as one of the leading figures of contemporary American photography.
Todd Hido observes suburban landscapes, anonymous architecture, and solitary figures, with an aesthetic that is deeply atmospheric and cinematic. His now-iconic images of houses lit at night create a silent tension between presence and absence. Photographed in natural or available light, often through a windshield, in rain, fog, or snow, his works play with blur, grain, and reflections to produce a perceptible distance. Each image functions as an open narrative fragment, inviting the viewer to project their own story.
His work is now included in the collections of major international institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Recent exhibitions include a solo presentation at the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles in 2025.