Red‑headed America: Photographs, ancestry and a new national identity

Scottish photographer Kieran Dodds, a proud ginger himself, began a project in 2013 to capture the faces of people with red hair across Europe. He later turned his lens to the United States after noticing a dearth of American subjects in his 2020 book Gingers Spanned the World. When Americans reached out, he made seven long road‑trips that now form the core of his latest work, Gingers of America.

The golden thread of ancestry

Dodds explains that red hair is a simple genetic marker that, in the U.S., appears in about 4 percent of the population—roughly 14 million people if gathered together. This is higher than the usual 0.5–1 percent for the rest of the world, hinting at a multi‑layered heritage that he illustrates with portraits from Alabama, Oklahoma and beyond. He notes that Native American families frequently hold European, Irish or British ancestry—often from early intermarriages with Scots and Irish settlers—providing a plausible genetic source for the ginger gene.

The book’s pictures show diversity: a young Cherokee girl with a deep ruby hue, a family from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation carrying mixed German and English roots, and a multiracial Alabama child whose grandparent moved to Georgia after interracial marriage was forbidden. These examples underscore how a single hair colour can cross boundaries of ethnicity, region and history.

Red‑hair and cultural perception

Dodds acknowledges that “ginger” has often been used as an insult. He argues that the term, unlike “red,” carries a golden, almost vibrant connotation that can be used positively. In his portraits, he builds an aesthetic of warmth and fire, contrasting the harsh stereotypes that sometimes surround red‑haired people in media.

He describes how photographs of American gingers have shifted public perception during the recent men’s football World Cup, where visitors noticed the diversity and “heart‑ening” vibe. They found that, despite political divisions, America’s communities share a richness that can be reflected in a single trait.

Conclusion: a road trip of identity

For Dodds, the project is a road trip through the United States, tracing how a handful of genes circumscribe histories of migration, colonisation, and cultural exchange. His portraits invite readers to consider a nation not only by its borders but by coloured strands that bind disparate peoples together. The result is a compilation that attempts to uncover a “golden thread” of common humanity in America’s been‑tangled tapestry.