J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs [Hardcover]

J. D. Okhai Ojeikere (Author), J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere (Author), Andre Magnin (Author), Elizabeth Akuyo Oyairo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2000

No other aspect of fashion is as fleeting and ephemeral as hairstyles. Whereas we might ponder the length of hemlines and the fabric du jour, hair often escapes the passionate fashionista's fastidious and discerning gaze. J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere (born 1930), who worked as an advertising photographer for most of his life, has documented the hairstyles of his native Nigeria in painstaking detail for over thirty years. Plaited, braided, in buns, in towering tresses: In Ojeikere's photographs hair reveals its sculptural qualities. His deceptively simple, classically composed photographs display hairstyles as a sheer play of forms-minimal, abstract, transient artworks. But Ojeikere's photographs do not merely purvey aesthetic pleasures. They provide and unexpected insight into Nigerian culture. Detailed captions tell us by whom and for which occasion a particular hairdo was worn, leading the reader into a previously unfamiliar social milieu. In an exhaustive text Ojeikere recounts his life as a photographer, giving us a glimpse of the nascent African mass media culture of the 60's and 70's.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere was born 1930 in Nigeria and has worked as an advertising photographer for most of his life. He has documented the hairstyles of Nigeria in painstaking detail for over thirty years. Ojeikere's refined and stylish photographs illustrate how what may appear as mere surface can be an expression of a culture's innermost uniqueness.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers; First Edition edition (August 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3908247306
• ISBN-13: 978-3908247302
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs, October 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs (Hardcover)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Hair Pics, February 4, 2010

By 

ButterflySoulfire "EO" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs (Hardcover)

I am Nigerian-American and have natural (virgin) hair. I bought this book to get style ideas. The quality of the pictures are great and the styles are interesting and beautiful. Most of the styles wouldn't be accepted in the average American office though but could probably be modified. This also makes a nice coffee table book, as the book cover is attractive and the photographs are actually artistic. I only wish that it had a little more text with more background information.