Back in town

I just came back from Sri Lanka last week and five days later I am still getting used to the rhythm of London. Lots of information everywhere. Fast inspirations sometimes difficult to grasp. It is always the same when you come back from holidays. It takes time to adjust to reality and find your balance again between things you want to do and things you have to do. All of the sudden days and weeks and months seem shorter and time slip away of your hands without you even realizing. Some friends have experienced the cycle over the years and call it slightly post traumatic holidays depression. I suppose the answer is to connect again with the people around you and start looking for meaningful stories with people in them. I tried to get some decent images of people I met in my trip and I decided that I will try to develop the human side of the story for the borders project, most probably the life of joy and pain of some Hispanic communities in London.
It is a bit of a struggle to find new concepts in new hostile environments, but at least I found new ideas about how to write my blog. It is a conversation between you and the reader you can't see. It is more like radio than it is like a newspaper column. More intimate, more conversational and more interactive. Asking rhetorical questions to provoke the audience is not a bad idea. You must be prepared to defend every fact and opinion or to apologize when you make mistakes. Among the bloggers there are lots of clever people who simply want to tell you things you didn't know.

Letter

Working full time with different timetables every week and studying at the same time is not always easy. Management of time is therefore so important to me when organizing lessons, tutorials, meetings, and plans for projects. Developing ideas always takes longer than expected and stories unfold into something different most of the times. Working on the human hair trade project during the Summer, I have been trying different approaches, looking at the possibilities from different perspectives and adjusting the outcome in the process. Editing is not that hard if you know where are you going and what are you trying to achieve.
During the first and second term of the course I have been learning to research subjects in depth and solve technical problems by myself. The feedback and comments of the rest of students is very helpful and inspiring and I hope to be able to offer some new experiences back next term.
I have improved my understanding of what really matters in photography. Simple rules not to forget. Composition, light, background, knowledge about the subject, the purpose of the story and growing importance of multimedia tools.
Discovering new names, images and styles during the lectures is very enjoyable and enlightening. Tackling Important issues and concepts I never thought about before is key to have a broaden and deep view of the story of photography.
The essay about Sebastiao Salgado and the relationship between aesthetic beauty and social message made me realize that photography is not just about the technicalities to produce good quality images. Photographers need to know about economy, history, geography and politics for instance because everything is interconnected.
The goals for the next future is to explore and improve the use of audio, video and images within multimedia applications as new concept of telling stories and keep developing new ways of looking when producing images and stories.

Street & Studio

I just came back from Street & Studio, the first exhibition at the Tate Modern to explore the urban photographic portrait through the parallel development of these two environments from the beginning of last century to the present day. It was quite impressive and reassuring to look and recognize some original images we have gone through during the first six months of the course: Walker Evans, Robert Frank, August Sander, Henri Cartier Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Paul Strand, Robert Mapplethorpe, Martin Parr, Richard Avedon. Some images are constructed using costumes and artificial backdrops in a controlled situation within the private space of the studio. Some others offer a new kind of portraiture, capturing people in the streets with new models of small handheld cameras. The encounter with the anonymous passer-by was already one of the key motifs of street photography.
Going through all the rooms to learn more about the urban history of photography, I discovered that Walker Evans was preoccupied with trying to capture what he called ‘ a cross section view of average hard-working people’, and that contemporary photographers like Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Joel Sternfeld work both with large format camera and tripod, though their photographs often resemble snapshots.
I was really surprised by the approach of some photographers I didn’t know anything about before my trip to the exhibition. In Malick Sidibe’s studio in Mali for instance, young people posed playfully with their new possessions, suggesting the euphoria of life after independence and the development of an African culture. David Goldblatt showed black and white citizens together on the streets of Johannesburg and Jeff Wall created images carefully constructed using actors and cinematic lighting of a scene of two police officers arresting a Hispanic man.
Photography is undergoing rapid technological developments during the digital age and I am starting to discover how some photographers came out everyday with different strategies and approaches to create series of images using in new ways sound, light and multimedia tools.

Strength and weakness six months after

Flicking through the July Spanish edition of National Geographic, I found a fantastic example of perfect reportage about the killings of gorillas in Virunga National Park by writer Mark Jenkins and photographer Brent Stirton. The story is about the struggle of the last remaining animals living in Congo, Uganda and Ruanda and the fighting between guerrillas and park rangers to control the illegal traffic of wood. The continuous interferences of governments in the management of the area and the fatal consequences for the refugee camps develop the story even further to attract the attention of a broader audience. Local issues unfold into international facts in front of the reader who live on the other side of the globe. The importance of choosing the right story and finding the right approach to create images that show efficiently to the viewer all sides of the situation is the key for success.
This is probably one of the most important lessons I am learning six months after the beginning of the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography. I am starting to look at reality from a different perspective as the first step to develop potential ideas.
Choosing and researching the subject from a particular angle is as important as writing an appealing article or producing quality images. The critical question is what are you planning to take photographs of and why are you doing it in the first place, and then how are you going to do it. Always try to show you story as close as possible to your idea.
On the other hand I am still quite lost about all the technicalities in the industry. No confidence or expertise to manage and present my images with the right application or to negotiate with editors or potential clients for instance. So far I have been a consumer rather that a producer, but exploring new ways to use new products and markets with the help of the other students could be the next step.

Photo Essay 3. Human Hair in Chelsea

The idea of Sejour developed after stylist Terry Bishop and colourist Carl Dawson got sick of the trend plaguing London salons: huge, overbearing studios with minimalist design and noisy activity. They met while learning under the hands of Nicky Clarke. After acquiring a broad clientele base, Bishop and Dawson created a home-like space for Chelsea socialites and Saudi royalty, who wanted a more intimate approach to keep their privacy. With a staff of talented Brazilians, South Africans and New Zealanders, customers at Sejour pay around £75 for a cut and around £500 for human hair extensions. One of the most experienced hairdressers in the salon is Zelda, who is currently working with a new generation of young models to enter the prestigious competition for the British Hairdressing Awards 2008. The popularity of human hair extensions has grown to such an extent in Chelsea that many costumers and celebrities living in the area are rarely seen without them. Professionally applied hair extensions are not to be confused with clip-in hair extensions, which are for temporary use and should be removed daily and not left in your hair when sleeping. The main advantage of real human hair extensions is that it is far easier to look after. There is no need to treat it any differently to your own hair and it looks and feels so natural that even a trained eye cannot tell you are wearing them when they are expertly applied. If the client wants to use human hair to thicken her own hair, an average amount of extensions would be approximately 50. The average lengthening process usually requires between 100-120 extensions. At Sejour the costumer can choose between European hair, the most popular choice for its soft natural feel and extensive colour range; Russian hair, the most exclusive and rare type of hair as it has not been dyed or chemically treated in any way; Brazilian hair, the most difficult to find in the UK as it is naturally curly in texture and it will remain curly even after washing, and Indian hair, a very popular choice as the quality is excellent but not quite as good as the European, Russian and Brazilian hair. There is a more limited colour range on this type of hair and it is pre-dyed to match a colour chart from which the hairdressers can match a client's hair.
The cost for Indian hair is £6.00 per extension, £7.00 for European hair, £8.00 for Russian hair and £9.00 for Brazilian hair. All prices include materials, application and finished styling for all hair types. Extensions will last three to four months on average and normally 50% of the human hair can be re-used for future applications.

Photo Essay 2. Human Hair in Brixton

The presence of Caribbeans in London started with the arrival of Jamaicans on the Empire Windrush in1948. Dispersing to many parts of the city, mainly Clapham and Brixton, they came either alone or with new wives and families from all over the islands, setting up home and working mainly for London transport or for the National Health
Service. Jamaicans tended to settle in the south of the city, whereas Trinidadians and Barbadians tended to gravitate to the areas around Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove.
The black community of Caribbean and African residents in London today is fairly spread across town. Although there are hubs of residential areas like Peckham, New Cross, Dalston and Lewisham, one main area do stand out, however: Brixton.
In the middle of the neighbourhood is Brixton Market, a local landmark built between Electric Avenue, Pope’s Road, Brixton Station Road and Atlantic Road.
It’s open six days a week and you’ll find everything from tropical fruit, vegetables, spices, specialist meats and fish as well as Caribbean literature, cards and gifts.
It is also home to Europe’s largest amount of Afro-Caribbean foodstuffs, which obviously appeals to a large contingent of black consumers who can also find specialist hairdressers, barbershops and hair products in the surrounding streets.
One of the most trusted places to cut and blow dry your hair is Eseosa Salon, founded and managed by Sandra, a former model from Nigeria. However most clients come here for human hair extensions. They are incredibly popular and are extremely versatile. Most people choose to use them to lengthen or thicken their existing hair. They are added to their own hair by several means: braiding, bonding, weaving, or strand-by-stand, and typically the process is performed by a skilled hairdresser in a salon. If properly applied, all human hair extensions can be washed, brushed, straightened, and curled and can be worn for up to four months. Extensions come in such a wide range of colours and textures that there are no limitations, providing the real hair is suitable and healthy.
Costumers can get the benefits of having long hair without having to grow out their own for years, but hair extensions can also do considerable damage and cause thinning to their real hair. Long heavy extensions apply pressure to the scalp and some people may experience headaches from the strain of the hair or even react to the bonding glue that is used to apply the extensions.

Photo Essay 1. Human Hair in London

Recycled as expensive hair extensions and wigs for the West or sold for use as raw material for the chemical industry, human hair trade has grown into an extremely profitable business, with more than 95% of all human hair imports coming from India and China.
The human hair business first boomed across India in the Sixties, but sales dropped when synthetic alternatives were introduced. Since then complaints of skin allergies, especially by European consumers, once again boosted the demand for natural hair. The human hair trade has become a large market entirely export-oriented, that thrives on painstaking methods of collecting hair from villages and slums where hair is least likely to be dyed or treated with chemicals. Factory workers as young as 12 years old spend their days sorting, combing and cleaning the hair collected from villagers, barber shops and temples. Women are being increasingly targeted and exploited by unscrupulous agents because there are not specific restrictions on the import and export of human hair. This is obviously an environment that breeds illegality.
The Hindu temples of Tirupati in the southern province of Andhra Pradesh are the centre of the global trade in human hair and the wealthiest in all of India. Each year thousands of worshipers make pilgrimages to visit the statue of Vishnu, where their hair is cut off as an act of religious sacrifice and devotion. Babies are shaved for good luck and adults allow themselves to be shaved to thank the gods. The temples are permitted to spend not more than one third of their revenues from hair sales on expansion and renovation. The rest goes to charities, schools, orphanages and hospitals. Within a few days, tonnes of donated hair make its way from the warehouses in the temple to lucrative auctions and processing factories around the port of Chennai, eventually arriving in Europe and America where it will adorn the heads of Western women. Indian hair is renowned for its quality and is bought raw for between $2 and $5 per kilo. Once processed, it is sold to extensions and wig makers for around $40 per kilo. Lower quality hair is interwoven with other fabrics to make jackets linings, mattresses and cosmetic brushes, or it is converted into amino acids, which in turn are used in food and medicine.
The demand in the UK and US for hair extensions and cosmetic products with hair extracts means that turning faith into fashion has become a new big industry over the past ten years, earning major temples and exporters revenues of more than $3oo million annually. Celebrities are the best advertisement for companies like Great Lenghts, an international conglomerate with 45 distribution offices in 53 countries that controls around 60% of the world market for human hair extensions and processes 5 tons of hair each month. Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow have all had long hair extensions glued to their own, and thousands of regular women in the developed world have followed the trend, paying up to $2000 for a full head session to extend volume or length. Women have an average of 100 to 200 grams of hair on their head and the extensions last for six months. By then a person’s own hair will have grown so that the extensions no longer sit properly in place, so the foreign hair is removed and discarded.
The human hair business is growing at the phenomenal rate of 40% annually, creating a network of dealers on all continents and air shipments around the globe. The sole purpose of all this effort is to transfer hair from one head to another, because having one’s own hair is just not enough. Hair has to be shiny, smooth, long and perfect.