Listen to the Hair Stories archive:  HERE

Listening Salon Installation

Mobile Photo Booth

 

Hair Stories is an ongoing, interactive portraiture and oral history project which considers the politics, rituals and meanings embodied in hair. The project illuminates the intersections of human experiences through the lens of female hair cultures.  It is a platform for women and gender nonconforming to share individual perspectives and hair experiences, and to be invested in the process of listening. The Hair Stories interviews cultivate a culture of care and respect around a person’s body and the stories they carry.

Our conversations are archived through Storycorps in the Library of Congress at the American Folklife Center. Listen  HERE

 

Hair Stories Portraits

The Hair Stories Portraits, collected in the mobile photo booth and in conjunction with one on one interviews, invite the viewer to participate by inverting the gaze back to the self. By seeing oneself from the back, participants might gain a perspective from which we rarely see ourselves, but are often seen.

These hair portraits narrow our visual identity down to shape and texture. The simplification creates a space to consider how as human beings, we so often stereotype others based on appearances.

 

Listen to the stories on the HairStories archives or upload your own interview on our Storycorps Archive HERE