Red Heads
It may be pale amber, it may be burnished gold, it may be brown in the shadow and gold in the sun… it is all red. Red hair is distinctly Other. If you are not used to seeing redheads, the first time one shows up, you can just see it as amazing. When I first moved to Ireland from Germany, I was entranced by all the beautiful auburn-haired people that I met and saw – it really compelled me to explore the history of this common Irish stereotype. In my research and study, I learnt that 10% of the population in Ireland have red hair (a figure that is only surpassed by Scotland) and that 46% of Irish people carry the rare recessive redhead gene – such a high representation is not found anywhere else in the world. I decided to create a book that is a photographic collection of red haired people that I spotted on the street, on the bus, in the library, while shopping or at the university. The book as a whole is a compendium of the strange history and mythology of red hair, as well as an exploration of the weird and wonderful things that have been written and said about red heads. But, more than anything, the photos are a celebration of the striking beauty and the distinctiveness of red heads –capturing their strength, fierceness and spirit in the portraits.