If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em. That’s the attitude Michael July took when he decided to raise the money to publish his own photography book titled, Afros: A Celebration of Natural Hair. Using the crowd funding site KickStarter, July was able to raise over $20,000 to make his dream a reality – by taking a non-traditional route to publishing he was able to dictate the creative direction.
His campaign pitch on KickStarter was simple and to the point: “By creating this book my hope is to show how beautiful and diverse natural hair is and that it should be embraced and celebrated by everyone worldwide whether they choose to wear theirs natural or not.” Soon July’s KickStarter campaign was getting attention from the natural hair community and even The Huffington Post. The $20,000 goal was soon reached with the funds going towards printing and shipping costs.
July spent five years shooting over 240 subjects and the book includes each of their “hair stories”. The book contains quotes & commentaries from each individual on why they choose to wear their hair natural and/or what does natural hair mean to them, their occupation & where they hail from as well as researched information regarding the history of the Afro. Well know faces such as Dr. Cornell West and Reggie Watts.
Though the title of the book may lead you to believe that the subjects are all of African decent July actually chose a variety of ethnicities and cultures to participate. “I have every type of ethnicity in the book,” he says. “White people, Europeans with curly hair. I didn’t discriminate because of color or ethnicity, obviously. Asian people and Hispanic people and white people have Afros too.”
Nowadays being natural seems more like a trend, but we don’t choose the hair we’re given. We’re born this way! July has seen first-hand the changing attitudes of towards natural hair. His parent’s rocked Afros and he always preferred dreads. “Both my parents had Afros, and they were artists, and they exposed me to a lot of museums and Brooklyn culture when I was growing up,” July told New York Magazine earlier this month. “I basically picked up a camcorder and started documenting all of the culture around me — parties, concerts, shows.”
Finding participants for his book back then would have been a challenge. Even as recently as 2006, when July first started scouting subjects, he had to work hard to convince people to say yes. “For the first four years, it was difficult to find people who wore their hair naturally, but then I noticed a Renaissance period, particularly in Brooklyn,” he says. “We’re seeing a much broader representation of natural hair that they weren’t seeing about five or six years ago. Particularly in the last three years, I’ve met a lot of people — lawyers, doctors, other professionals — who wear their hair naturally without worrying about it being socially acceptable.”
*Photos from Michael July, Britto Hugs Brooklyn and Vibe Vixen
