A few weeks ago I went to see an exhibition at a gallery on Redchurch street. The exhibition is called RED HOT. After seeing a little blurb on Time Out about it, I decided to find out more. The artist (photographer) Thomas Knights noticed the common stigma in the UK of making fun of red heads, stereotypically known as "gingers", specifically the "ginger" male. Bullying towards red headed people is seen very often in British culture especially. As a girl with red hair, I felt like I had to go see the show for myself.
When walking in all the walls of the gallery were covered in photographs of these red headed men. Each image had a little quote next to it, explaining either a bullying experience they lived or a joke, or a statement of inspiration. While reading through these short reflective statements I started to realise that I had been bullied too. When I was 13 I was in the school play and an older student asked me (in a very arrogant tone) if I dyed my eyebrows, because my hair was red and my eyebrows were brown. At the time I didn't even think about the possibility of dying my eyebrows. But I think this experience then lead me to dye my hair black the following year. I think now is the time to say, my hair isn't flaming red, my Italian ID card says my hair is "auburn". And in the past few years it has been getting darker and darker because I don't have time to be outside much in summer.
This exhibition however made me proud to be different, and it made me notice that having red hair is special. The show genuinely touched me, but I think anyone else could have enjoyed the show too. Hopefully it will become a well known exhibit and tour around the world with more and more images being added to the collection of photographs.
Here's the show's website if you want to explore more of what I talked about: http://www.redhot100.com/
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