Las Pelilargas

‘For many Indigenous communities, hair is a physical expression of thought—an extension of the self, much like the way rivers flow or plants grow from the earth. It reflects a deep spiritual connection to nature, rooted in reverence, humility, and reciprocity. Similar beliefs exist among Indigenous peoples worldwide, like Native Americans. What makes Latin America unique is how these Indigenous rituals and traditions have spread beyond their original communities. Ancient customs blend with waves of immigration, shaping a deeply hybrid identity. This project became an anthropological search, about where we come from, what we keep and how something sacred can hide in something as simple as hair.’

The book contains both black & white and colour photographs and in some photographs the subjects are pictured in the natural landscape amongst cacti or rocky outcrops. In others, those being photographed are playfully arranged by Werning in domestic environments, or surreal interventions. The colour photographs show the subtle differences in hair colour highlighting inherent individuality alongside conformity. Sometimes the hair is adorned with colourful accessories, sometimes it is still and sculptural, and others it is captured in movement.

Werning began this extensive body of work in 2006 in the Andes where she had been photographing the schools of Argentina’s Indigenous Kolla community. She encountered many women with exceptionally long hair, and intrigued, began to take their pictures and listened to their stories. Guided by her intuition she went on to spend months in remote mountain towns putting up signs in schools, hospitals and markets, and organising hair competitions in an effort to seek out those with long hair. She found that traditions were not just surviving, but evolving with long hair symbolising both continuity and subtle rebellion. In recent years she also began to make portraits of Indigenous Kichwa men living in Otavalo, Ecuador, where men and boys wear long braided hair to reclaim the tradition after a history of forced hair cutting during Spanish colonial rule.