AFROS- A Celebration of Natural Hair: Interview

AFROS- A Celebration of Natural Hair, the highly anticipated coffee table book by photographer Michael July, features 400+ pages of amazing, eye-popping images of women and men alike (and even some chirren!) sporting their natural tresses. I had the pleasure of chatting a bit with the man of the hour about his “baby” at the powerHouse Arena official book release party & exhibition:

with Michael July

TBN: What gave you to the idea to do the book in the first place… why Afros?

MJ: I did Afros because I’m a collector of Black art and culture, videos, movies, books… everything I could get my hand on. I started to notice, particularly from my heroes from the 60s, 70s and 80s were people with afros and natural hair. Then I started to look into the subject and there weren’t really any books out there that really spoke about it or illustrated how dope and deep our history is with natural hair. So I started doing research on it and decided I wanted to document it and shoot a book. So, the book AFROS: A Celebration of Natural Hair, I started seven years ago, actually to this month, July 2006. I shot people from all over the country, every ethnicity but particularly Black people and I got quotations and incredible commentaries. I put the book together with a wonderful team of designers, Darhil Crooks and Monica Whittick. We worked really hard and diligently for those seven years to come up with a book that a lot of people are right now starting to enjoy.

TBN: Was it hard to get people to participate at all? What was the process?

MJ: It actually was a lot easier than I expected. I didn’t solicit people over the internet so it was all me basically scouting people on the street and I also had referrals, you know… my goddaughter has an afro, my cousins, my crew that I work with. But a lot of people I just pretty much found on the street like at street fairs and parties or wherever. I was particularly interested in people with really good vibes no matter what their occupation or their background. So, it really came together in a very easy way without working real hard at it. There were no stumbling blocks throughout the whole process of the book.

TBN: Speaking of different backgrounds, usually when we talk about afros, people tend to think of one specific race or culture… what type of diversity will we see in this book?

MJ: Well, make no mistake… it’s mainly Black people. But occasionally I would get people of Jewish ancestry, I got an Asian person in it, someone from Dominican Republic, Puerto Rican… I’m leaving other ethnic groups out (LOL) but I pretty much got the basis of afros.

Michael with mom, Annie

TBN: So, you’re a Brooklyn boy! Growing up here in Brooklyn, were you exposed to a lot of people wearing “naturals” back in the day?

MJ: Yes, I was very exposed. My mom, she has locs right now but she grew up in the 60s and 70s and she was one of the first persons in her community and in her church to wear an afro and people would put her down but then like two years later, everybody in her church was wearing an afro! Same thing happened when she transitioned to locs. So I got a lot of that in my community, particularly being in Brooklyn in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Just growing up in the 70s, 80s and 90s, I saw a lot of that. Even to this day, it never really went away. It’s not a trend. It’s just really people starting to embrace it more and more which is really good!

TBN: In the past few years we’ve seen this surge of women embracing their texture. Can you talk a bit more on how you feel about that? I love that you say, “it’s not a trend”…

MJ: Yeah, I think that it’s a beautiful thing! I think a lot of it is people have really become aware of who they are and aware of environmental things, being more conscious of what you put in your body, what you put in your skin, what you put in your hair and how it affects you. So it’s a lot of that and also a lot of self-pride and a lot of just reawakening to a new period of your life and really going back to your roots- no pun intended- but that’s what it’s about!

Aren’t you ready to get your copy of Afros?! I’m telling you, when I got home, I couldn’t put it down. From the colorful images to the lively commentary of the many interesting folks photographed, I would be shocked if this book doesn’t have your full attention!

Stay tuned for some of the moments I captured at the launch party! To find out where to get your copy of AFROS, check out afrosnaturalhairbook.com and be sure to keep up with Afros on…

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‘Til tomorow!

xoxo

~Toia

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