Scottish photographer needs portraits of Alabama gingers: Here’s why

As Scotland ready for a nationwide vote on independence from the United Kingdom in 2014, photojournalist Kieran Dodds got down to discover methods to outline what gave his residence nation its id.

One of Dodds’ concepts got here from the notion that Scots are inclined to have crimson hair.

Dodds started to interview and make portraits of people that match the stereotype, those that think about themselves ginger.

He realized that individuals have been desirous to embrace the trait, which is extra frequent in Scotland than most wherever else on the earth however nonetheless consists of not more than about 13% of the inhabitants.

In September 2014, Scots rejected the transfer for independence by a vote of 55% to 45%, selecting to stay a part of the U.Okay.

But Dodds was simply getting began with the gingers challenge. Encouraged by the curiosity it generated, he expanded the work past Scotland’s borders.

Dodds is now constructing a set referred to as Gingers of America.

He is coming to Birmingham in September as one of many artists with an exhibition at Samford University, “Heading Home, Glimpses of New Jerusalem.”

The exhibition is separate from his gingers challenge. But Dodds needs to make use of his first go to to Alabama so as to add portraits to his work, together with, hopefully, some Black Alabamians who carry the trait. He plans to be right here for a number of days beginning Sept. 10.

“In some identity politics, we use a trait to isolate ourselves,” Dodds stated.

“I’m trying to use it to connect people across the world. And that seems to be what people understand when they see it.”

Dodds finds individuals who self-identify as ginger through his website.

Those who wish to be thought-about for potential inclusion within the challenge can add a photograph of themselves and share any related household historical past.

When he began his first gingers challenge, Dodds stated he was impressed by Renaissance work that function ginger characters, together with Jesus and Mary, which was intriguing as a result of they have been Middle Easterners depicted by artists from southern Europe.

His first ebook, “Gingers,” revealed in 2020, included portraits made in Jamaica and within the metropolis of Perm in Russia, in addition to the United Kingdom.

In these locations, Dodds discovered ginger individuals with household connections throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and east Asia, he stated.

Dodds stated it’s human nature to be intrigued by variations like hair and pores and skin shade. He stated drawing consideration to variations should be executed with care, however is price doing in the best context.

“You’re worried you’re going to step in a sort of a landmine, a conversational landmine,” Dodds stated.

“I think it’s good to have these opportunities to remember that we are one human species, one group of people, and interconnections are part of the human story.

“The story of human migration throughout the world is something we should be interested in, and one that transcends political and national boundaries.”

Dodds stated the time period “ginger” is extra descriptive than “red-haired” due to the vary of colours ensuing from the trait, shades that carry a golden or copper glow.

“It can be from a sort of dark brown with that golden to almost strawberry blonde,” Dodds stated. “So there’s a spectrum. Ginger is encompassing that spectrum. I’m fairly broad in my interpretation.”

The ginger is a recessive genetic attribute. That means households can go it down invisibly for generations.

Dodds has examples of that in Gingers of America.

They embrace one portrait of a Native American younger girl whose household had no recollection of anybody however Cherokees going again for generations.

“Her hair was this incredible ruby color,” Dodds stated. “It’s just a beautiful, dark tone, quite different from other ones. So it really is a global tree.”

Dodds studied zoology on the University of Aberdeen, the place he was editor of the coed newspaper and earned a level in 2002. He realized that his favourite a part of the tutorial work was documenting analysis with images.

“To some people, writing comes most naturally, or speaking. But it’s when I’ve got a camera in my hands that I feel that I can interact with the world and start to process it,” Dodds stated.

“It’s just the way I encounter the world. When I see something awesome or beautiful or the opposite,” Dodds stated.

After school, Dodds turned a employees photographer for the Evening Times in Glasgow, the place he coated information, sports activities, and have initiatives akin to nice white sharks in South Africa and evangelist Billy Graham’s ultimate campaign in New York.

His freelance assortment, “The Bats of Kasanka,” documenting the migration of thousands and thousands of fruit bats to Zambia, the world’s largest migration of mammals, gained first place within the World Press Photo awards for nature tales in 2006.

Dodds’ first ebook, “Gingers,” was launched in November 2020. He later did a pocket-size model, “The Little Book of Gingers.”

Dodds, who lives in Edinburgh, has a private connection to the gingers challenge as a result of he’s ginger, as are his twin daughters.

“Sometimes stories come to you and they sort of pull you along. You can’t resist their gravity,” Dodds stated.

“People respond to it in a way that I don’t always get for stories I pour time and effort and energy into. And what has intrigued me and kept me going with this story is being able to see different cultures and places.”

On earlier journeys to America, Dodds has visited Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the East Coast, together with New York and Washington, D.C.

Dodds stated he obtained a robust response on a go to to Portland, Ore., the place he stated a whole lot of individuals wished to be included.

On his upcoming journey, he plans to make portraits in Tennessee and California, in addition to Alabama.

“What I’d love to do in Alabama is find people whose family stories or their story today gives us a glimpse into the story of that part of America, the history, but also contemporary stories,” Dodds stated.

Dodds stated he needs to ask Americans what unites them, as a result of a lot of what’s written and stated is in regards to the divisions within the nation.

“Every time I do these shoots, I just feel like so thankful to meet everyday Americans who just talk about their life, trying to educate their kids, do a job, just have their family around for dinner, just those good everyday things,” Dodds stated.