Though the stereotypical red-haired person is white and of Irish descent, this narrative is far from inclusive. In hopes of expanding perceptions of red heads, London-based photographer Michelle Marshall set out to photograph Afro-Caribbean people with red hair for her series "MC1R."
The series is named for Melanocortin 1 receptor, the gene that causes red hair. Initially, Marshall was interested in freckles, which she tells Mashable led to exploring subjects with the MC1R gene. Her angle shifted when she met a freckly little girl who she says she was surprised to learn was of mixed race descent. Later, the little girl would become Marshall's first subject.
Since then she's photographed about 30 Afro-Caribbean individuals for her series. She tells the Huffington Post that she wants "MC1R" to change the perception that a person with red hair is always of caucasian descent.
"As we struggle with issues of immigration, discrimination and racial prejudice, Mother Nature, meanwhile, follows its own course, embracing society’s plurality and, in the process, shaking up our perceptions about origins, ethnicity and identity," she said.
"Each of these encounters have been special and humbling because much like some of the tedious or negative reactions they may have had to deal with, I am in effect singling them out too, albeit to promote a beautiful quirk of nature that some may see as an imperfection, but singling them out nonetheless," Marshall wrote to Mashable in an email. "So I’m always really conscious of that."
See more of Marshall's portraits on her website.