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Welcome to Rooted, a campaign celebrating the facility of black hair and the launch of ‘Tallawah’ – an exhibition by photographer Nadine Ijewere and hairstylist Jawara Wauchope. Here, we explore what the great thing about black hair is everywhere in the globe, from Jamaica to London and Recent York to the screens of Nollywood movies.
For people of color, our hair is all the pieces. That’s why conversations around cultural appropriation – and ringing the alarm on those that are guilty – are still so vital in 2020. The culture around black hair is an intrinsic a part of our community, it’s how we spend time with one other, tell stories, even feed ourselves.
The importance of black hair and its cultural significance is one which is unfortunately lost on the subject of our white counterparts. ‘But black girls straighten their hair,’ they could bemoan and god forbid they wish to use extensions. Nevertheless, photographer Nadine Ijewere and hairstylist Jawara have an antidote in the shape of Tallawah, an exhibition that celebrates all the pieces black hair is and may be.
But with such an array of hairstyles, practices, techniques, where to begin? Jamaica – birthplace to Jawara and half of Nadine’s heritage (the opposite being Nigerian). After working together on a shoot for British Vogue, the hairstylist explained he desired to work on a book exploring black hair; Nadine, wanting to explore her Jamaican heritage desired to visit the country for the primary time, and so the project was born.
“It was a tremendous experience to go there and I felt for the primary time I could see why I do certain things,” the photographer tells us. “I felt a relationship and like I belonged somewhere. I keep going back because I like it a lot, I feel at home there.”
The result’s a really breathtaking series of images, featuring local men and ladies shot across the island, sometimes appearing naturally (tsjuzed by Jawara) or sometimes with hair that rivals architectural structures, courtesy of the wig wizard himself.
Here, we speak to the creative duo about their relationships with hair, the facility it has, and celebrating the true version of Jamaica.
Hair is clearly an integral a part of Tallawah, what were a few of your experiences with hair and identity if you were growing up?
Jawara: After I was a young person, I experimented with my hair each day. I dyed my hair different colors every single day – I’m not likely sure how I’m living now. It was nearly attempting to determine who I used to be and what was occurring. Being raised in Jamaica, I saw a number of colors in hair and I attempted a number of things.
For me, hair is so necessary. It’s one of the necessary things that individuals hook up with and it’s often neglected. Plenty of people emotions with their hair and it may well make you’re feeling things that you simply may not understand. What I desired to do with this project is to point out how necessary to identity hair is, more necessary than clothes or make-up, since it’s something that on you irrespective of what. Even the dearth of hair, you’ll be able to create the identity you think it is best to seem like with extensions and wigs. It’s such a multifaceted thing that I’m still attempting to process and determine in my maturity now exactly how necessary it’s.
Nadine Ijewere: For me growing up in Kent and going to a grammar school with predominantly caucasian people, I felt like I didn’t really slot in due to my hair. I attempted to do things like straighten it or wear extensions and I actually struggled when it comes to how I presented myself. I almost had two sets of friends; to my black friends I used to be too white and to my white friends I ticked off the ‘she’s a white-black girl’ box. Even now, I’m known as the white one by my black friends. It’s simply because of the best way I speak or my mannerisms.
I’ve all the time found it difficult to seek out myself inside that and I’m still trying to seek out myself, so it was necessary to do projects like this, where I can go and explore my heritage. I just want to seek out a connection somewhere. With Jamaica – I’m half Nigerian too – I feel like I connect more with it and that side of me.
What do you think that the facility of hair – and black hair specifically – is?
Jawara: I began doing hair at a young age, but I might see people come into the salon feeling bad or down and leaving completely happy. When Jamaicans have their hair done, life is totally different. The whole lot is great.
Nadine Ijewere: You will have this sense of confidence, you’re feeling like this latest person – I like it.
Jawara: I’ve all the time been committed to the emotion of feeling a method after which feeling a very different way once you’ve gotten your hair done – especially when you’re living in a society where you’re continuously attempting to slot in. Sometimes you only want to be ok with yourself and hair may be very, very necessary to that. That’s what we tried to capture with Tallawah.
What was the start line for Tallawah?
Jawara: We spoke about it just a few times once we were working together. Nadine was talking to me about her heritage and wanting to explore her Jamaican side more because I used to be telling her about my Jamaican family and experiences growing up there. Over time, we decided to do something about it.
Nadine Ijewere: Yeah, I spoke about not knowing much about that side after which organically from there it just grew. We each decided to do something positive here and I feel elements of that intertwine with one another.
Was it the primary time you’d visited Jamaica?
Nadine Ijewere: Yeah that was the primary time I’d been. My mum is Jamaican but she’s never been. My parents are very westernised, in order that they’ve never been. They know the right way to cook national dishes and stuff like that, but there’s never really been that element of identity once I was growing up. They’re very British, so I kind of got here out that way too. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been eager about checking out where I’m from and why I even have certain mannerisms.
What was the method for casting and shooting the photographs if you were in Jamaica?
Jawara: The entire process was extremely organic within the sense that we had a plan, but lots of it was ‘let’s go on the market and feel it out, see what we feel’. There have been certain places that I had in my mind and I’m sure Nadine had just a few in her mind to, but I feel like lots of the project was taking place and feeling Jamaican and capturing it. It was type of all planned, but not planned because Jamaica is one in all those places that if you’re driving through it, you’re like ‘Wow that appears beautiful, let’s shoot there’.
What were a few of the ideas and references you had for the hair?
Jawara: So far as the hair’s concerned, I desired to do an ode to what I saw growing up in Jamaica. I didn’t want it to be a stereotypical thing though, a number of the styles we see in popular culture come from Jamaica and it’s never really been recognised.
I wanted to point out different sides – the churchgoers, dancehall goers, and the way different hairstyles work in each a part of everyone’s life. You may tell loads about who someone is or what someone does just by their hair in Jamaica, it’s such a robust a part of identity.
You furthermore may shot a few of the images in London, why was that a very important counterpart to those taken in Jamaica?
Nadine Ijewere: So, we shot those images in southeast London with British-born Jamaicans. For us, what was necessary was to point out each of our heritages. Jawara was born and raised in Jamaica, whereas I’m a British-born Jamaican, so we felt it was necessary to marry those two areas. We desired to tell an all-round story and have a good time all Jamaicans.
Jawara: I grew up in Jamaica for the primary a part of my life after which Recent York for the later part, but with me living in Brixton now – an area with a heavily Jamaican populated community – I realised that inside British culture there may be a robust Jamaican diaspora and culture. It just made sense to marry the 2 because I’ve never seen that done before. We wanted British Jamaicans to feel proud too and have a way of ‘Wow, that is for us too.’
“You may tell loads about who someone is or what someone does just by their hair in Jamaica, it’s such a robust a part of identity” – Jawara
Do you’ve gotten a favorite moment from the project?
Jawara: Mine was shooting within the Blue Lagoon with hairstyles that ought to never be near water. It was so iconic in my mind so far as this whole trip goes. It was a really tricky thing to capture and Nadine killed it. Although, I don’t think I’d ever do this again…
Nadine Ijewere: While the project was a tremendous experience, one moment that stood out for me was this particular lady who we photographed. She asked us to elucidate the project to her after which she said: ‘These images will not be going right into a space where there are captions referring to us as ‘monkeys’ or ‘gorillas’, or references like that, are they?’ It hit me then why this project is so necessary to do and show, because there are people who find themselves scared to share who they’re, their identity, for the fear of being mislabelled, mistreated, and ridiculed. That was the purpose where I assumed: ‘That is so necessary – we’ve got to get this on the market’.
What do you hope people take away from the photographs after they see them?
Jawara: I need people to feel whatever emotion they wish to feel after they see them. I need people to have a look at Jamaican culture and appreciate it and understand. Whether you’re from Jamaica or not, everyone seems to be from a spot we are able to hook up with.
I might also like for people to see how proud Jamaicans and the Jamaican diaspora ought to be – we’re from such a small place that could be a third-world country, but have had such an impact on the remaining of the world. Reggae, reggae culture, and Jamaican culture is big. We should always never feel insecure simply because it’s a small place. I need people to step into that world for a second and appreciate it.
Nadine Ijewere: For me, I really need people to have a look at these images and see these strong, beautiful people and this different interpretation of them, what they stand for, their relationship with hair, and the way that has influenced popular culture. Slightly than stereotypes of how they’re, or them being aggressive.
I just wanted Tallawah to be a celebratory body of labor that claims all kinds of beauty ought to be celebrated and that everyone seems to be unique in their very own way and ought to be pleased with that, fairly than worrying what other people think. That’s what I really like about all of the hair Jawara created for this, it’s so expressive and emotive. I hope that individuals are able to have a look at this and realise in the event that they wish to do it, they will show their hair like that, and so they have the identical sense of freedom.
What did you learn while working on Tallawah? Was there anything that surprised you?
Jawara: I’ve learnt that this project must occur – things like these have to occur more. After I was in Jamaica, and I used to be doing this, just the response of the folks that we were shooting just made me realise ‘wow, there shouldn’t be really much of those projects’. Quite a lot of individuals who go to Jamaica exploit Jamaica, put them in movies, put them in videos. Some paint a foul picture of Jamaica. You already know, lots of people come to me asking ‘Hey I need to go to Jamaica but is it secure?’ It’s really, the popularity that individuals have, of Jamaica now. So I’ve learnt that lots of these projects have to occur more, and just the importance of having the ability to give people a voice who don’t necessarily have a voice must occur as well. That’s what I’ve learnt from this project. And I’ve also learnt that if you do a project like this it may well be quite expensive
Nadine Ijewere: I learned it may well be expensive, nevertheless it’s value it! I’m in that very same kind of world that Jawara is speaking of. After I spoke about that woman earlier, I realised that no person is doing projects like this which can be celebratory. It’s our responsibility as creatives and having the access to do these items, to do them. We should always be encouraging, celebrating, and like Jawara said, giving people a voice, since it’s necessary to see them for who they’re.
Tallawah is open to the general public Thursday 23 January – Saturday 1 February 2020 at Cob Gallery, 205 Royal College Street, London NW1 0SG. Entry is free and everybody is welcome.
This text was originally published 24 January 2020.
