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What makes his work interesting is the way he depicts these common areas most Americans are used to in a different way. Hildo takes most of the suburban home photos at night and use of lighting and color gives them an erie atmosphere. There is stark contrast in the shadows and brighter areas which also give some of these photos a dramatic feel. It looks like he uses long exposures for these photographs. This allows for the windows of these houses to become very illuminated and the sky show a glow around the houses. The result adds to the erie, almost haunting, atmosphere these pictures create. The windows become the brightest art of the scene and it makes the viewer wonder what might be happening in the house.
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Another aspect of Todd Hildo's suburban setting photos that adds to the atmosphere is the lack of human subjects. The typical image of an American suburb usually includes people; whether there are kids playing outside or someone mowing the lawn or getting into their car. The lack of people in these photos make these scenes much more creepy. These neighborhoods now feel deserted. The lighting makes them feel mystical and otherworldly.
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Hildo's interior shots usually give off a similar empty atmosphere and also play with lighting, but they deal more with forms and spaces inside suburban houses. A lot of these photos use the lines and textures of the floors and walls to create mores abstract compositions. He also uses furniture and household objects to explore the oddity of how these spaces look without any human subjects.
I find Todd Hildo's work interesting because he uses environmental abstraction, which is what I try to show in my work. However, I find that his use of abstraction is very unique. He doesn't just abstract textures and forms, he uses lighting and space to abstract atmospheric qualities. He takes an area that usually gives a certain universal feeling, and changes it, so that these settings are both recognizable and unrecognizable.
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