Keith Barraclough, a former photographer for National Geographic, admits that the project he and his wife Kate Lorenz created in 2013 was born by chance. They are not redheads; they have no redheaded children. “It was happenstance,” he tells me over a Zoom call from New York. “I was doing a corporate shoot and a guy came in wearing a white shirt. He was a redhead and had this presence about him. He looked as if he’d just stepped off a boat from Ireland at Ellis Island in 1880. I turned to my assistant and said: ‘I would love to get that guy in the studio and have some fun with him.’”
More than 10 years on, Barraclough has photographed more than 500 people for The Redhead Project. The main criterion is simple: the subjects must be natural redheads (although he does sometimes photograph an older person, who is no longer ginger, holding a photo of themselves from the past). Most of their subjects are found via social media, particularly Instagram, where the project has a strong footprint. “It isn’t enough for them to simply say: ‘I’m a redhead and I’d like to be part of the project,’” says Barraclough. “You have to be willing to share your story,” adds Lorenz, who does much of the organisation and social media. “We ask them which part of the project resonated. Then we have a back and forth to come up with possible ideas for the shoot.”
The photo shoots take place at Barraclough’s studio on Spring Street, in SoHo, New York, and usually last three hours or more. He asks his subjects to bring props to illustrate their personalities. Full disclosure here: as a now white-haired, but natural redhead, I took part in a shoot five years ago, with my wife, the writer Heather Macadam, and my niece. I had taken along a miniature globe, to highlight my love of travel, and Barraclough had me strike various poses with it (including balanced on my head). Heather and I were working on a book together at the time, and to illustrate the tensions Heather grabbed a knife off a magnetic strip in the kitchen and, roaring with laughter, held it to my throat as Barraclough snapped away.
“I like to push the limits,” he says. “So, if you like peanut butter, I might make you slather it on a piece of bread, then eat it, and even smoosh it all over your face. We’ve had bakers, so I’ll pour flour over them. We had a little girl from Chicago, who loved ranch dressing. So, we had her pour a bottle of it over her head.” He laughs. “I try to capture people’s personalities – peel back the layers to see who they are.”
When Covid struck, Barraclough found himself stranded at home like many photographers. Luckily, a developer created an app called CLOS, which allows remote shoots. “The first I did was with a lady in LA and I was in NYC. I shot it on my iPad. The subject has the app on their phone and we connect through the app, like on a FaceTime call. I had someone hold the camera in LA and I gave directions, like: ‘Hold the phone a bit lower or move back a bit.’ So, I was remotely directing the shoot. And this means we can now shoot subjects from all over the world. So far, we have done 52 remotely.”
I am curious as to how they monetise the project. “We don’t,” says Barraclough, with a grin. “It is just a personal shoot. We don’t charge for it and have not made any money on it. And I’d like to stress that we are not independently wealthy! I have got some advertising jobs because of it, but it is basically funded through my corporate and commercial work.” The photo archive can be seen at Barraclough’s website and on his Instagram feed.
In my day, redheads were teased. They were called “carrots”. These days supporters of the Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner come to his games brandishing bunches of carrots. “I think it has changed,” says Lorenz. “We see a lot more pride. But it depends on the person’s age. Older people seem to have more stories of prejudice. And I like to think our project creates a kind of community.”
Ginger snaps: portraits from the Redhead Project
Savannah (Barbie)
“To say Savanah loves Barbie is an understatement. So, when it came time for the shoot in Atlanta, she brought her whole Barbie collection and dressed up as a Barbie with overdone hair and makeup. With the help of masking tape, she then made the Barbies even more ‘part’ of her.
Ellen (True crime)
“Some of Ellen’s favourite books are human behaviour, psychology and true crime. To represent this, she brought Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood to the shoot. The props of magnifying glass, caution tape and fake blood were improvised, and not easy to combine!”
David (Patton)
“Ten-year-old David has an encyclopedic knowledge of General Patton so this was a no-brainer. Emerging from the dressing room, he planted his feet with military precision and stared into the camera.”
Molly (Music) – main image
“Lugging a piano up the stairs to the SoHo studio would have been impossible,” says Barraclough. “So, Molly’s friends Genny and Jonny created this collar on the fly on set. This last-minute idea ended up perfectly fitting Molly, who has performed in a madrigal ensemble with Renaissance costumes.
The Redhead Project can be seen at keithbarraclough.com