Natural hair isn’t a fad or trend, says photographer Glenford Nunez when commenting on his ongoing “Coiffure Project,” which features portraits of women modeling their natural hair. After fifteen years of NaturallyCurly.com we tend to agree with Nunez.
The 25-year-old founder of TYP Photography Studio in Baltimore has been snapping shots of natural hair for years, first inspired by his natural-haired assistant long before he even knew that there was such a thing as a natural hair movement.
“I had no idea until I started putting the photos together,” Nunez told The Huffington Post. “People have thanked me for what I’m doing for natural hair and black women, but I genuinely had no idea.” Nunez’s photos manage to capture so much more than hair. The photos reveal underlying messages of beauty and identity for each woman.
The accidental project has gone from celebrated website to a now nearly 100-page photography tome worthy of prime coffee table placement for $130. But, if you want to peruse the book sans a certain “je ne sais quoi” of quality, “The Coiffure Project” is available in a paperback version, too, at only $22.
“My main goal was not to make a profit off the book, it was just so that the book could be in the world — so it could exist, so people could have access to it,” Nunez told The Huffington Post.
To lower costs, Nunez self-published the book using money earned form his photography career and researched distributors to insure quality and affordability. And now that the book is published, Nunez is looking to continue his passion of photographing natural hair women by taking it international. That, and hosting art exhibits to showcase his work.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to have a show with my work and I’m hoping ‘The Coiffure Project’ is my ticket,” he said.
The best part of his project, though, is that it reinforces what we already know: that the natural hair movement is taking the world by storm. Though the photography stems from an accidental discovery of a movement, Nunez explained that his choice to photograph natural hair was an attempt to document the beauty that surrounded him in his own life – and natural hair just happened to be a part of it.
“This is how people wear their hair — and it’s a part of my life and I’m just documenting my life, whether it be natural hair or anything.”
References:
http://www.blurb.com/b/4326522-the-coiffure-project
http://trustyourphotographer.com/
