Pieter Hugo’s The Hyena and Other Men (2005-2007) is a portrait series produced in Nigeria about a community of ‘hyena men’ who together form a community around the ownership of exotic animals, predominantly hyenas, but pythons and monkeys as well. Dubbed the “Gadawan Kura” (which roughly translates from Hausa to “hyena handlers”), these men make a living by capturing, training, and performing with these animals.XXXOn the surface, Hugo’s work represents the sometimes-odd relationships humans can develop with animals. As we unfold the layers of The Hyena and Other Men we begin to find deeper themes of dominance and submission and how they relate to masculine ideals. It’s not a stretch to zoom out of this work to consider the countless ways in which humanity asserts power over nature for economic gain. And in Hugo’s work the intense dynamics of such relationships are ground into a still silence, as the quietude of photographs and the casual postures worn by his subjects suggest that these moments we see are simply of just another day in the world. Each representing someone, somewhere, amidst their own relative normality of everyday life.