Friday, April 16, 2010

Redheads

From the time I was a small child, I always wanted to have red hair. I attribute this partially to Disney's version of "The Little Mermaid" and its redheaded star, Ariel. As a teenager, I dyed my hair bright red because I still thought that red was the most beautiful hair color. Although I eventually grew up and realized that red hair wasn't the best look for me, I still admire natural redheads whenever I see them.

Red hair is the rarest natural hair color in humans, appearing in only 1-2% of the world's population. While red hair is uncommon in most parts of the world, it seems that BYU has a substantial population of titian-haired students. I suspect that this is because many BYU students are of Western European descent, where the genes are most common.

For this project, I set out to document a few of BYU's beautiful redheads. At first, I wondered if I would be able to find enough people to photograph. Soon, I started noticing people with red hair everywhere, and when I would stop and take someone's picture, I hardly had to wait before another redhead came along. I am glad to see that BYU has so many people with such beautiful hair, because there are some studies that suggest that redheads are dying out. At least at BYU, I think that redheads aren't going away anytime soon.








11 comments:

  1. I will never look at redheads the same.... :) I guess I've never noticed it before but isn't that was art and photography can do? point out things that we normally wouldn't notice? great job! :)

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  2. Cool concept. I never realized there were so many redheads on campus. My favorite is the photo with the red background, it is so striking.

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  3. I always thought that BYU had a lot of redheaded people! This is a great project. You incorporated yourself and also captured a lot of unique people.

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  4. The photo of red hair on the red background. Awesome.

    I never thought about it before, but you're right, BYU does have a lot of red-heads by comparison.

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  5. One of my best friends is redhead. I love this idea, and the personalities of the people whose pictures you took.

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  6. I like the one with the red background. Interesting concept.

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  7. I dated a redhead once and was afraid I was going to see his picture on here. :)

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  8. I love the spontaneous portraits and red hair. great project!

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  9. I approved of this project before the photos were even taken, and I like the way it turned out. I did think that everyone noticed how many redheads there were at BYU, but maybe I'm more sensitive to it? Anyway, my favorite is the one of the girl against the red wall, because it reinforces the concept of redhead-edness.

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  10. I love read heads. This project makes us more aware of the people around us and sheds a positive, special light on a minority population that's often forgotten

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