Exhibition to celebrate 'gingers'
A GINGERFEST was held to herald the launch of a celebration of redheads.
Ginger tops are used to mickey taking and a generally bad press, but photographer David Rann is aiming to turn that around with a special exhibition.
David, from Dudley, had a huge response after he launched an appeal for ginger, titian and auburn-haired volunteers to come forward for his show.
Even David’s wife Kate has a glorious head of auburn hair and he decided to do something in celebration after reading that science had suggested red hair might be extinct within 100 years.
David, aged 43, said: “I thought it was about time we celebrated the beauty of this historically much maligned variant of human colouration.
“I have put together an exhibition of photographic portraits and am naming it after the so-called ginger gene, Melanocortin-1 Receptor.”
David, who graduated last year with a photographic degree from the University of Wolverhampton, is now studying for an MA in Fine Art at its School of Art and Design.
He said that he felt ginger tops got a bad press just because they looked different to other people.
But he said that famous figures from the distant past, such as Boadicea and Judas Iscariot, were thought to be redheads.
He added: “The Melanocortin-1 Receptor series is a study of the physical traits associated with the so-called ginger gene.
“At last night’s launch, ginger-themed refreshments such as ginger nut biscuits, ginger beer and carrot cake were available.”
The exhibition of 23 photographs at the Quadrant Lounge, Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton, will run until the end of the month.
