In 2023, South African photographer Pieter Hugo captured the portrait of a young truck driver in Kano, a city in northern Nigeria, during an assignment connected to rapper Travis Scott’s music video shoot. Hugo, known for his striking visual storytelling, encountered the driver while on location photographing artwork for Scott’s album *Utopia*. Despite a tight schedule—the driver was transporting extras to the set—the subject agreed to pause long enough for two portraits, one inside the truck’s cab and another outdoors.

Hugo describes the young man as exuding a distinctive sense of style and self-assurance, noting the driver’s hat adorned with a pink silk flower sprig and the miswak twig held between his lips, a traditional natural toothbrush derived from the Salvadora persica tree. The image stands out for its vivid color and clean aesthetic, contrasting with the more desaturated, rougher tones characteristic of Hugo’s earlier work in the region.

This visit marked Hugo’s second trip to Kano. His initial journey, nearly twenty years earlier, brought him to northern Nigeria to document the so-called “hyena men,” individuals who roam the streets with hyenas on leashes. The resulting photographs became widely recognized after being published in Hugo’s 2007 book *The Hyena & Other Men*. That earlier work was strongly influenced by the Harmattan season’s diffused, dust-laden light, lending the images a muted, atmospheric quality, unlike the brighter conditions of his recent shoot.

The young truck driver’s portrait forms part of Hugo’s latest series, *What the Light Falls On*, currently exhibited at the Kyotographie photography festival in Kyoto, Japan, through May 17. The series, encompassing 23 years of archival material, explores themes of life viewed from the vantage point of middle age. It moves away from the stark and often confronting imagery of his previous projects, instead presenting a more nuanced and tender perspective on West African life, as embodied by this confident and stylish young man.

Hugo’s evolving approach highlights both continuity and change in his work, reflecting a deep engagement with his subjects and their environments across decades and cultural moments.