Zarleen Blakeley's approach to portraiture "I'm not my hair"

Zarleen's self portrait (used with permission)

Zarleen is an Australian photographer who has demonstrated an alternative wholistic approach to presenting portraits of women who for various reasons have lost their hair. Her project “I'm not my hair” is a '.....portrait series of women who have a hair loss condition but are not defining themselves by it'

This is an empathic and humane visual communication of the hair loss experience. We know these women from what they tell us because the photographer has encouraged them to co-create their image and to communicate more than their hair loss appearance, in marked contrast with more clinical approaches.

To quote the photographer :

“The series depicts how they are more than their hair and shows each person in an environment where they're enjoying something they're passionate about, including music, books, road-tripping and photography!"

See the portraits on Facebook  http://on.fb.me/1Vwlnny

No Lights No Lycra Goes Global! Sixty locations worldwide.

In September 2014 we posted on the No Lights No Lycra phenomenon.
It's gone global people!! No Lights No Lycra now exists in over 60 diverse locations worldwide. Here's an update from Assemble Papers writer Hudson Brown.

Alice Glenn and Heidi Barrett at Schoolhouse Studios in Collingwood, Melbourne. 
Photograph by Tom Ross.

One of the founders Alice explains in the interview

“I think one of the biggest things is to try and forget what other people think of you. That’s the darkness aspect – a place to dance where no one else is watching. You don’t have to worry about what you look like; you don’t have to worry about seeing yourself in the mirror because often, we are our own worst critics. It’s a chance to just enjoy what it feels like to dance,”

http://assemblepapers.com.au/2016/02/05/no-lights-no-lycra-alice-glenn-and-heidi-barrett/#social

From NLNL Facebook page

NLNL on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Lights-No-Lycra/279364972117239?fref=ts