Strand by Strand

Strand by Strand

Hair is everywhere, and through my photographic lens, it is here. The focus on hair stems from my childhood, where my mother, a hairdresser, for the first ten years of my life, made her weekend appointments with the homeless population on the streets of Philadelphia. From here and from this background, the centerpiece for my digital color series titled, Strand by Strand continues my fascination and familiarity with hair, however my photographs are completely different from traditional, commercial or advertising images of hair that we see all around us. Most photographs of hair, especially commercially for products, show fake but beautiful hair. This results in the consumer wanting their hair like the model’s in the advertisement. Whereas, with my work, it is to be seen texturally and natural as these models have their own hair routine.

Their ‘picture signs’ have been removed. I have some guidelines: shallow depth of field (i.e f1.4 as opposed to f22), always color, always studio lighting, and extremely close-up no face, no gender, no age, just hair. What happens? It becomes its own visual universe of symmetry and asymmetry, chaos versus order, pattern with repetition, white the hair becomes equally compelling as it becomes more and more abstract, farther and farther away from its owner, whether female or male, the head becomes my canvas, the hair, my tools for visual expression, the end results as seen in my compositions.

Texturally hair can look different between race, genetics, and a few other factors. For example, a model with dreadlocks takes care of their hair differently than a model with straight blonde hair. These factors matter because taking care of hair is a routine for every person with it and the texture of someone’s hair can mean how often it is washed and what products can be used. The dreadlocks are twisted a certain way which is why they have a crunchy texture. Black hair can also have this look because of the thickness and curls that grow naturally. Whereas, the model with blonde hair has smoother hair, but it grows thinner than black hair. These textures can be seen in the close-ups of each model’s hair. 

Historically, portraiture photography has been popular and there are many artists that have focused on hair. Man Ray produced a photograph of a woman with very long hair. This is the earliest example of hair photography. There are also a plethora of photographers that photograph just the back of the head which can include the hair. 

Strand by Strand, a project, has been great learning about the history and overall everything there is to know about hair different from my own. Texture varies from a lot of unique things as well as routine in the way people care for themselves. Documenting the hair in each state on each model makes everything unique, as well as that hair will never look the same as it did in the studio since it is constantly growing.