J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs

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Summary: J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs
Review: This is more than a coffee table book. One may pick up Ojeikere's book out of curiosity. However I guarantee that when you put it down you will have a broader sense of what cultural objects and practices can provide meaningful insight into a society. In relatively little text, Ojeikere's clearly explains the importance of Nigerian hair sculpture as a mode of cultural expression and documentation. The book captures fifty years of Nigerian women's hairstyles and represents only a fraction of his collection of hairstyle photographs which numbers in the thousands. Since it covers several decades of Nigerian traditional styles it has a historical dimension absent from similar efforts with a modern focus such as Francesco Mastalia's beautiful collection, "Dreads" (Artisan: 1999). An appendix accompanies the photographs which identifies hairstyles by name and region.

I enjoyed this book. The black and white photography is stunning and helps the reader to make the transition from seeing these hairstyles as incidental aspects of personal adornment to recognizing them as public works of art. The women's faces remind us that this is a living art form. The portraits, accumulated from weddings, offices and public festivals truly convey the extent to which these styles meld contemporary style sense and awareness of traditional Nigerian adornment practices. I highly recommend this book for those interested in photography and the modern history of women's adornment in Africa. This book will also provide wonderful insights for a wide variety of individuals, for example, interested in the politics of African and African diasporic hairdressing in the context of cultural studies, women's studies, African American studies and art history.