Celebrities and entertainers who style their hair in attention-grabbing ways (think Lady Gaga's plaited cone or Nicki Minaj's towering bouffant) are often lauded for their originality. But intricate hairstyles are far from being a contemporary development - as J.D. Okhai Ojeikere's photographs show.
The photographer spent the Sixties and Seventies documenting the hairstyles of the women he encountered in his native Nigeria. He snapped over 1,000 photos of these complex coiffures, from subjects he found on the streets, in offices, and at wedding celebrations, as he revealed to My Modern Met.
Shot in black and white, the photos tread a fine line between portraiture and abstraction. They also seem rife with allusion; one woman's look recalls the gently sloping lines and sharp edges of much of Frank Gehry's architecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment