Francesca Allen’s Konkursas depicts participants in Lithuania’s Konkursas Pasaulio Ilgaplaukės annual competition for the world’s longest hair. Here hundreds of girls and women with thousands of feet of hair walk the runway and have their lovingly groomed hair measured by gloved judges, before shaking it in a ceremonial finale. Allen’s fascination with ritual and coming-of-age sparked her interest in the contest, one which blends pageantry with folklore and allows the artist to deepen her thoughts on hair within femininity: “Hair influences how we are perceived by others, how professional we appear, our identity, our religion and culture. It plays a huge role in the enactment of self and also our discrimination against others.” The resulting photographs—haunting, funny, slightly surreal—explore the dichotomy between modernity and tradition, obsession and aspiration, and ideas of girl- and womanhood.

This book is the first of many to be printed and published by Steidl in collaboration with Chloé Arts, an initiative driven under the creative direction of Chemena Kamali, embracing Chloé’s legacy of female creativity. Its mission is to celebrate outstanding female talent, nurture emerging artists, and create unexpected interdisciplinary conversations across different fields of the arts.

Co-published with Chloé Arts, Paris