It was in 1978, during my first summer of making portraits while
using an 8x10 inch large format camera, that I found myself drawn
to photographing redheads. I have often been asked; 'why redheads,'
and I've often felt it was because in summer redheads seem to bloom
in the sun more gloriously than the rest of us. But it also might
have been my living far out on the tip of Cape Cod, surrounded by
all the blue light of sea and sky, which made me pay more attention
to the flamboyant qualities of redheads. Their hair and the exotic
markings of their skin in sunlight became even rosier and more
astonishing in that blue atmosphere. Redheads, like film itself,
are transformed by sunlight. It seems natural to me now that I
would have paid attention to this new phenomenon as it appeared
within the larger subject of the Cape itself. After making more
than 50 portraits that first month, in which at least 30 were of
redheads, I understood that this was an impulse to be taken
seriously. I ran an ad in the local paper, the Provincetown
Advocate: "REMARKABLE PEOPLE! If you are a redhead or know someone
who is, I'd like to make your portrait, call...." They began coming
to my deck, bringing with them their courage and their shyness,
their curiosity and their dreams, and they shared their stories of
what it was like to be a redhead. They spoke of the painful
remembrances of childhood, the violations of privacy and name
calling-"Hey, red," "freckle face," "carrot head." They also shared
with me their sense of personal victory at having overcome this
early, unwanted celebrity, and how like giants or dwarfs or
athletes they had finally grown into their specialness and by
surviving had been ennobled by it. You could say that they had been
baptized by their own fire, and that their shared experience had
formed a "blood knot" among them. I had begun making portraits with
the intention of photographing ordinary people. But redheads are
both ordinary and special. Their slender slice of the genetic pie
accounts for only 2 or 3 percent of the world's population. As
different as redheads are in terms of nationality and religion,
they often give the appearance of a strong familial connection. My
way of making portraits is not by getting down on my hands and
knees, nor climbing high on a ladder, nor getting into bed with a
celebrity, but simply standing eye to eye with anyone has found
their way to me, young or old. I need only one or two sheets of
film and the patience to see it through. This new edition of
'Redheads' will have a number of new and previously unseen
portraits.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
