London photographer Thomas Knights has taken the world by storm since launching ‘Red Hot’ – a collection of portraits of stunningly gorgeous, redheaded men.
Knights’s collection, his first solo exhibition, is comprised of images of 40 of beautiful American gingers. He also recently launched a new book, "Red Hot 100," featuring the 100 hottest redheaded men in the world.
His objective here is to “rebrand the ginger male stereotype” – he wants to see redheaded men perceived as sexy, confident and heroic, instead of as the subject of mockery, however light.
“Red headed actors are portrayed as undesirable, angry, and weak characters – or the bad guy,” said the 31-year-old photographer. “They are never the heartthrob, the hero or the action star, and it has created this notion that all ginger men are ugly and weak. I want to show that they're not.”
“If we can get a ginger actor to play James Bond, it would have a significant impact on ginger kids growing up – and would go a long way to stop kids being bullied at school for being redheads,” he said.
Hundreds of 2014 calendars with the portraits have been sold, raising thousands of dollars for anti-bullying charities. Though it seems strange and unfortunate that being a redhead and being bullied go hand in hand, Knights, a redhead himself, has collected quite a few stories of childhood trauma from his models over the years.
“We have been conditioned to think something by a group of people, and now, it has gone so far that actually people's innate sexual desires have been manipulated so much that they do not find redheaded men attractive,” he said.
But his beautiful gingers against an iconic bright blue backdrop (accentuating their fiery locks) have caused quite a stir. It’s a Red Hot revolution – and Knights has reported many people approaching him since his launch three years ago to say that gingers are their “new thing.”
The exhibition which is continuing to tour the world celebrates the beauty of the redheaded man, and features stunning gingers from around the world including actors, Olympic gold medalists and top models.
Watch his Red Hot 100 trailer:
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