unnamed photo by: J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere
unnamed photo by: J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere
J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere was born in 1930, in Ojomu Emai, Nigeria. He lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria. Ojeikere started his career in 1961 as a still photographer with ta Nigerian TV station and in 1975 opened his own studio, Photo Ojeikere. Ojeikere wanted to map the culture of his native country in different ways. In 1967 he joined the Nigerian Arts Council, and during their festival of the following year he began to take series of photographs dedicated to Nigerian culture. Starting in 1968, Ojeikere started photographing various hairstyles he sees. He has photographed these hairstyles on the streets, at work, and at celebrations.
There are hundreds of ethnic groups in Nigeria, each with its own traditions. Among other things which are part of these traditions are various hairstyles. There are special hairstyles for different social occasions, such as marriage, and for social positions in families. The “Hair Style” project is composed of nearly 1,000 black and white photo images.
I love the way J.D. ‘Okai Ojeikere thought to capture the many culture of Nigeria through the photography of the hairstyles. I would love to learn what each of the hairstyles symbolized or for what event they were created. Ojeikere asked everyone that he photographed, nut I could not find where this information might be accessible. I selected two pieces from Ojeikere collection to show the extreme diversity in the styling. I felt the first had an almost regal feel to it. The magnificent fabric and clever folds created bring art to fashion. The second is truly amazing since it is created with only hair. All I can say is “Wow!”
Please enjoy these as much as I do.
I was also intrigued by these photos when I saw them and I am happy to see somebody used them in their blog so I could read about them a little more. It is interesting to think of hair as being representative of art and culture, but this captures that concept so well.
How interesting. I never before would have classified hair as art, but it absolutely is! Did you ever read of what the different styles might mean to the different cultures?
I could not find any record of what the different styles meant or what culture they belonged to. I think each hairstyle brings a new sense of wonder though.
Hair art!? Wow, this is surely an interesting concept. Very creative this is.. This art from my understanding is based on the current event taking place in the culture, which makes sense, as people will dress for certain occasions. Anything came be an art form, but this really is genius of J.D. to think of photographing this because not only is hair art something that really can be captured within a certain time frame, there’s many different hair styles out there, and the idea of photographing a different cultures hairstyle almost makes you want to compare America’s hairstyles, they are not nearly as interesting, and time consuming as these must be, does this mean America is too busy to create awesome hairstyles??!!
Hair art has a tradition in the United States, but not where you would expect – the US Virgin Islands. During the Christmas Holiday season it is not unusual for hair salons to operate 22 hours a day (they close for cleaning). I have seen hairstyles there that rival the photo from Nigeria. I have also seen men with dread locks down to their knees in USVI.
These is fascinating. I never would have thought that there was such a thing as hair art. And that there were certain styles that represented certain events. I enjoyed the background information you provided and found it very interesting. I guess we do the same just very minimally and not a certain way, but for marriages, generally speaking of course, women get there hair curled and put in updos, same with proms. I do say there styles are more interesting and creative from what I have seen in the U.S.