Anthea Pokroy is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2010 she started a project called 'I collect gingers'. A redhead herself, the project for her is a kind of self portrait, exploring ginger people from all over the world. She states on her website that the interest in photographing ginger people came from 'the beautiful, romantic colour palette of a ginger person and all that it connotes' as well as the sense of community between redheads. Today, she has collected photos of over 500 ginger people from all over the world! She even attended a ginger fair in The Netherlands to collect there.
Pokroy is interested in prejudice, especially prejudice because of what a person looks like and what they were born as. Pokroy herself is Jewish and South African, as well as ginger, and has therefore faced stereotypes throughout her life. South Africa is famous for the apartheid, racial discrimination and segregation, and the Jews have faced a long history of persecution, most recently the Holocaust in which there was mass genocide of race and religion. Pokroy believes stereotypes and prejudice are still a problem and therefore aims to show this by using the symbol of ginger people as a sign of the oppressed, as well as the oppressor.
Pokroy is interested in prejudice, especially prejudice because of what a person looks like and what they were born as. Pokroy herself is Jewish and South African, as well as ginger, and has therefore faced stereotypes throughout her life. South Africa is famous for the apartheid, racial discrimination and segregation, and the Jews have faced a long history of persecution, most recently the Holocaust in which there was mass genocide of race and religion. Pokroy believes stereotypes and prejudice are still a problem and therefore aims to show this by using the symbol of ginger people as a sign of the oppressed, as well as the oppressor.
She photographs in a room with stark lighting, each person wearing white clothes. The photographs are a head and shoulders shot, and a strand of hair is taken from each person. The photos are purely for documentation, with them Pokroy envisions a 'ginger utopia', a world run by ginger people. A hierarchy consisting within, ranging from those with strawberry blonde hair to dark auburn. She aims to collect thousands more photos, so if you are a redhead you should get in touch!
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| Anthea and some of her collection |
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