Henry O. Head

Henry O. Head is a photographer living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and working across multiple genres, primarily portrait, documentary and conceptual photography. He uses analog processes in 35mm, 120 and 4×5 format. In his current season of work, he uses photography to document subcultures of the American South and Midwest, as well as who and what he encounters during his travels abroad.

My photography journey began not in the classroom, but on the road. I spent my early 20s living out of a backpack with my thumb out, hitchhiking around the US, Australia and New Zealand. During this stint of nomadic life, I used my camera to share my experiences with others and to preserve them for myself. With no formal training, I only knew that I wanted to make photographs that felt true to their respective moments. Along the way, my cousin let me borrow his Minolta from the 1970s and walked me through the basics of how to load and correctly expose the film. My new fascination with the alchemical process of exposing light to paper solidified my love for the medium.

Since going full time with my photography in 2015, I’ve learned to treat the photographic medium both as a window and a mirror. The camera becomes a window when I’m drawn outwardly into new places and experiences, when I want to be absorbed into the world. This externalized mode of engagement lends itself to much of the street photography and still life work that I’m drawn towards. But just as frequently the photographs I make are a response to what’s emerging within me: my questions, hauntings and captivations all make their way into my photographs. This act of conscious projection, moving what’s inside outside, gives me the chance to work more directly with the process of photographic experimentation.