An artist is celebrating redheads in a project entitled “I Collect Gingers”.
Anthea Pokroy photographed 500 men, women and children for her first solo exhibition.
The project, which took three years to complete, is aimed at exploring prejudice, racial classification and even the prospect of a 'ginger utopia'.
The three year project saw 500 redheads photographed and explores prejudice, racial classification and the prospect of a 'ginger utopia'
"As a ginger myself, what initially interested me was the beautiful, romantic colour-¬‐palette of a ginger person and all that it connotes," said Anthea, 26.
“But it was only after my first photography session with seven gingers that I began exploring the innate sense of community and collective experience that emerged from the otherness of the gingers.”
Pokroy, who began her collection in August 2010, photographed her subjects in a studio with stark lighting and white clothing.
She also shot close-ups of hair, skin and eyes and took a strand of hair from each of them.
As her work progressed she began to arrange the 'gingers' into a more sophisticated classification system.
This included colour divisions like copper, burnt orange, light orange and auburn.
She said she then began to imagine what a perfect world would be for gingers ‐ who make up between 1‐2 per cent of the global population - and the possible implications of this.
The fine arts graduate, from Johannesburg, South Africa, said she had hoped the project would address issues of discrimination and elitism in her country and the rest of the world.
She added: "This body of work hopes to clearly highlight this using the gingers as a symbol of both the oppressed and the oppressor."
The exhibition debuted at the CIRCA on Jellicoe Gallery, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in January 2013.
