Women and Their Hair

My aim was to convey control and a loss of control through portraiture, by photographing the models in a controlled studio environment I hoped to isolate them and evoke feelings of discomfort. As the female image has long been controlled, defined, and dominated by male artists, I wanted to show the women from a female perspective, in which their appearance and beauty was not being judged but rather the focus was on their hair. Prior to shoots, I conducted interviews with each subject via email, to gain an insight and understanding into the relationship they have with their hair. The responses, I received greatly informed my photographic approach, for instance I learned that two of model’s frequently wore wigs which was an aspect I brought into the photographs. Due to my Asperger’s Syndrome, I am very uncomfortable making eye contact, so I had the models looking in different directions away from myself and the camera. In many of the image the model’s faces are either partially or fully obscured, which enabled me to place the emphasis on the hair without the face drawing attention away from it.