The Photographers Gallery - Instagram Takeover
I found both of the artists below when scrolling through my Instagram feed. The have each been involved in the Instagram takeover challenge, in which they take over the Photographers Gallery Instagram feed for a day or so, posting their images and linking to their websites. Both of these popped up days apart, both focusing on hair in very different ways and they both inspired my next step in they project. For this submission I have finished shooting, but as I want to continue the project onto the next term, I feel these artists are still very relevant to look at for more exploration in time.
Ingrid Berthon-Moine
Ingrid's project "V’ "is a set of photographs of men's (hairy) chests, all with v-neck or open shirts, which through their framing are suggestive of the female pubis." The shaping of the images demands the viewers to look more closely, to decide whether or not the images are of female genitals or of mens chests. Ironically making these two things look so similar through the medium of photography, Ingrid has played around with the gaze that the viewer/audience occupies when looking at these images, making everyone look at them and question what they are really looking at. She states that her work "investigates sexuality and the human body as vehicles for questioning gender representation, the repercussions of capitalism, patriarchy, pornography and so on… with humour". This project jumped out to me because of the use of hair within the images and how they made me look at them. However, the subject of body hair and how people wear body hair is also intriguing me within this project, whether they remove or grow it, style it, colour it or shape it depending on where and what. I am considering looking at this for the next part of the project, again as an explorative part of the project, as it could also be included in a zine on a study of hair because obviously hair is not just on ones head.
Khadija Saye
Khadija Says created some beautiful images, also posted on the Photographers Gallery Instagram, titled 'Crowned'. Her work explores the "dynamic ways we celebrate and showcase the multifaceted Black experience". The images display black womens hair in braids and loose, and looks at how black women wear their hair in connection to their culture. I haven't really touched on race within my images, but more a broad study of how everyone wears their hair. However, looking into how you wear your hair will always bring up the question of why, and as illustrated here, hair styles are often connected to cultural looks and race, and fashion trends. Here Khadija celebrates how black women wear their hair, linking back to a documentary by Chris Rock called Good Hair, which focuses on hair within black culture. I feel as though I need to be very careful to consider why people wear their hair rather than just how, looking at a broad range of people next year from different cultures and maybe explore the differences within cultures and their relationship with hair.