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Todd Hido is a San Francisco Bay Area-based artist whose work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times Magazine, Eyemazing, Metropolis, The Face, I-D, and Vanity Fair. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as in many other public and private collections. Hido's work has been featured in solo shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and at the Kemper Museum of Art. In 2004, his work was included "Terrain Vague" at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. In 2001 an award winning monograph of his work titled, House Hunting, was published by Nazraeli Press and a companion monograph, Outskirts, was published in 2002. His third book, Roaming, was published in 2004.His latest book, Between the Two, this one focusing on portraits and nudes published in 2007.

Q1 Please tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you start? I am from Kent, Ohio and I now live in San Francisco. I got started when I was a teenager through BMX racing - just shooting my friends jumping their bikes.   Q2 Could you tell us about the projects that you are working on right now? I just had a new book released called 'Between the Two'. It is primarily portraits and nudes. It has been fun working within the Portrait genre, weaving some evocative nudes together with intimate environments. The combination of the two form "paper movies" - arrangements of images that create unfastened narratives. Q3 Could you tell us about your book, 'House Hunting'? What was the concept behind it? Why did you decide to take the suburban houses as subjects? I try to not have concepts in mind when I shoot - I find that not the best way to work - I just respond to things and places and people that strike something in me. The suburbs I have shot reminded me of where I grew up in Ohio. after living in cites for 10 years driving to the suburbs was "exotic" and interesting. I am always searching for the something "new" but I always end up discovering things that remind me of my past. Q8 Are there any people who inspired you? Who do you respect? I am inspired by everything I love - and I love to love an artist's work. Currently I really have been looking at Balthus, Edward Hopper, Gerhard Richter, and Anselm Keifer - all painters. Also photo books, I love books.   Q9 When is the happiest moment as a photographer? Looking at brand new contact sheets and seeing something you know you can make a great print of. Also-it pleases me very much that my 4 books have done so well and have all sold out. It feels reaffirming to have your work be in demand and sought after. Q10 What's coming up in 2007? Any plans for exhibition? I started the year with 2 shows - one in Los Angeles of some new landscapes at the Rose Gallery and one in San Francisco of my latest book Between the Two at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. Q11 Any message? Drink triple shots of espresso daily and follow your internal instinct on your work - things will come - and it is a real joy to let them just happen?and to not try to force them into being.

Q4 Did you use any lighting equipment or only relied on the available light from the street? I only use available light for all my work. I like things to look real - like they really happened - or could have happened. Q5 Do you prefer working with 8x10 format or other film cameras? Do you ever use digital? I use a Pentax 6x7 camera for all my work. I never use digital for my fine art work. Q6 Do you still reside in San Francisco? What is it like to live there for the photographer? San Francisco is a great place to live for being a photographer. There is so much to shoot here-a totally diverse landscape is available with a 20 minute drive - not to mention the liberal models who reside here too. And we have some of the best museums, galleries, and photographers who live and work here. Plus it the weather is often dramatic here and that makes for great pictures as well.   Q7 What do you look out for when you're shooting? Something that is kind of "off" or strange. I also often seem to shoot into the light.   Todd Hido http://www.toddhido.com

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