In 'Las Pelilargas', Irina Werning celebrates the flawless lengthy hair of Latin American ladies and ladies – Colossal



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#hair #Indigenous tradition #Irina Werning #portraits

All photographs © Irina Werning, distributed with permission

For the previous 17 years, Irina Werning has traveled throughout Latin America photographing ladies and ladies for her ongoing collection, The Longhairsor The Longhairs. Shot in shade and black and white, the portraits doc a definite cultural apply by an extremely alluring, even surreal lens. Many topics are camouflaged behind their cascading tresses, their identities hidden by hair that typically even appears to eat their whole our bodies.

Werning started The Longhairs in 2006, when individuals linked with one another primarily offline. “Again then, within the absence of social media, I’d journey to mountain cities and keep there for months, placing up indicators in markets, colleges to seek out them and even holding lengthy hair contests,” she tells Colossal.

For a lot of indigenous communities in Argentina, the place Werning is predicated, and all through Latin America extra broadly, hair spiritually connects ladies to nature and to bigger practices that help respect and look after the land. As he not too long ago wrote in Vogue, “A frontrunner of the Kolla group (Argentina's largest indigenous inhabitants) as soon as advised me, 'Your hair is vital; that is your connection to the earth. It’s the instructing that has been handed down from era to era.”

Whereas her approaches to figuring out topics and figuring out distinctive methods to share their tales have modified because the starting of the undertaking, Werning's intention has remained fixed: to honor and have a good time “their lengthy hair, their persistence and the love and dedication of the rising years.” Her images characteristic a variety of settings, from desert landscapes and equestrian coaching services to theater dressing rooms and balconies, and every has a component of playfulness, whether or not it's two younger ladies sharing a coiffure with a horse or one other with strands caught to a wall. like a wheel.

Werning obtained the W. Eugene Smith Grant this yr, an vital award that can enable him to return to the cities and other people he has photographed over time. She plans to discover how globalization has affected hair traditions and produce a e book to conclude the collection. She explains:

What makes Latin America distinct is the fusion of those indigenous traditions with waves of immigration, making a remarkably hybrid inhabitants. For me, this undertaking is an anthropological examine that helps me perceive the origins and cultural identification of Latin America at present: a narrative of cultures mixing and previous traditions colliding with new ones.

Discover extra from The Longhairs in Werning's portfolio and observe her on Instagram to maintain updated with the undertaking.

#hair #Indigenous tradition #Irina Werning #portraits

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