Serbian photographer captures the pursuit of beautification

When You’ve Stopped Combing Me, I’ll Stop Hating You, a series of photographs depicting the endurance of women facing hours in the hairdresser’s chair, opens tomorrow at Belgrade’s Museum of African Art.

Captured by Serbian photographer Katarina Radović, the series of 18 photographs allows the viewer to explore the concept of “women’s spaces” and the need for beautification, seen from a transcultural perspective, while avoiding the trappings of the “western gaze”. Radović took the photos during hrt artist residency at Centre WAAW in Saint-Louis, Senegal, in 2013.

“I was trying to capture the beauty in the making and the beauty of the making, the interactions of pleasure and pain in the process of hairdressing in this African culture, and the personal feelings involved in this ‘sacrifice’ to higher goals,” says Radović.

When You’ve Stopped Combing Me, I’ll Stop Hating You runs from 28 June–1 November at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade. More information can be found here.