REDHEADS

‘Every photo is an enigmatic trace, which pushes us towards dreams and it is a problem which fascinates and preoccupies. On the one hand, we want to believe, that thanks to it’s nature, subject, object, activity, past, moment etc. will be found; on the other hand – we should realise, that it will never bring them back. By contrast, a photograph is the proof of their disappearance and mysteriousness and at best transforms them.’
François Soulages ‘The Estethique of the Photography: the Lost and the Rest’

The Redheads project came into existence in an attempt to contend with the true principle or belief of photography. When exploring this problem it is often easier to answer the question “what is not photography?” than to accurately state what photography really is. Therefore, it is not space, it is not time, nor is it object (in the sense of photography on it’s own not in the sense “photo”).
It might only be an imperfect attempt to try to resolve the characteristics of space and time, to try to describe the object. Although these attributes in the collective consciousness of photography are perceived as the representation of the real, on the other hand the manipulation in the picture structure is blended with the properties of this medium.

Through Rejlander’s allegorical photograph “The two ways of life” mechanical manipulation during the creative process had been laid bare by the author and revealed to observers of the photograph. To what extent does the fact that the viewer is aware of being led in a particular direction by the photographer have on the quality of the photo? Where are the bounds of the “objective simulacrum”? Does the awareness that the picture was transformed reduce the “desire of the reality”?

In the Redheads project I tried to answer these questions myself by combining two types of portraits of people with natural red hair. These diptychs form a kind of metamorphosis. The absence of any reference to reality is created by the use of advanced montage and computer retouching techniques.
Even these seemingly realistic portraits are only subjective photographic representations of the subject, therefore the second photograph becomes a transformation of the transformation. Redheads from these photographs exist only within the realm of make believe.

From the middle ages there are many associations with Redheads. There was a popular belief that the colour of one’s hair was a reflection of a fiery temperament and that people with these natural physical attributes had a fiery temperament and were morally corrupt. Associations with witchs, werewolfs and vampires only served to perpetuate such beliefs. In these portraits I concentrated only on the natural qualities connected with redheads. I have focused on the fact that as redheads they rarely change their hair colour so the ability to hide their physical attributes – pale complexion, freckles etc. is only possible through manipulation of the image.

CREATIVE CONCEPT, PHOTOGRAPHY, POSTPRODUCTION: Jola Skóra
MAK-UP ARTISTS: Joanna Miturska, Sebastian Kaźmierczak, Małgo Kotlonek, Wioletta Uzarowicz
HAIR STYLING: Kajetan Góra, Sebastian Kaźmierczak
MODELS: Paweł, Andrzej, Kasia, Magda, Marcin, Janek