Pieter Hugo (born Johannesburg, 1976), a self-taught photographer and filmmaker, is often drawn to uncomfortable subjects whose distinctive features, clothing and settings all reveal details about their social situation. In this work, a startling portrait of a new South African family, Hugo captures a white couple, the man gripping a prosthetic leg, the woman proud but poor, sitting on a discarded car seat with a black infant tenderly held on her lap. The sitters pose self consciously for the camera, their lives laid bare for perusal. The picture comes from the series Messina/Musina consisting mainly of portraits of black and white families and individuals. The people in his portraits allude to a complex web of social, economic and political relations in an isolated community. Hugo aims for complexity rather than clichés about Africa, which often makes people feel uncomfortable. As Hugo puts it, 'I don't think art has a responsibility to be pretty.'