For Kieran Dodds, photographing people with red hair has become something of an obsession over the past decade. The 45-year-old from Edinburgh, himself a "proud ginger," began snapping gingers in 2013 in Scotland, exploring identity, before jetting off to other redhead hotspots like Perm in Russia and Treasure Beach in Jamaica. His 2020 book *Gingers* covered the globe, but then he spotted a "huge gap": no Americans. "I was like 'oh wow, of course, the whole world is in the States,'" he told the BBC. "It's a microcosm."
A message from a Native American man with red hair piqued his curiosity. "I found it very interesting and it made me think, 'where on earth did it come from?'" The cover of his new book, *Gingers of America*, features Joshua Elliot from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. Joshua's mom's side has German roots, his dad's side English and Swedish, which might explain his ginger locks. He's used to raised eyebrows - a Native American with red hair? But his chief's wife set him straight: "It's about your involvement in your community and your tribe, the people around you and what you put back into it."
Kieran chatted with many Native Americans, and most could trace European ancestry for their red hair. "The thing that surprised me was how early on there were these Scots and Irish marrying Native Americans," he said. Take Lottie Wahkinney, a Comanche girl from Oklahoma, whose dad Jared has Scottish grandparents from Galashiels. Jared's dad was Comanche, but his mum was born and raised in Scotland. "That's why my Lottie has a good mix of everything going on," Jared said. When he first visited Scotland at 22, folks asked, "Where are your moccasins? Where's your headdress?"
But there was one exception: a Cherokee girl named Lakia, whose family knows of no European ancestry. "It is a totally different colour of red," Kieran said. "It's deep ruby. That really intrigued me." Lakia's family all have jet-black straight hair, but hers turned red in childhood. "Everyone thought, since I was about eight, that I dyed my hair," she said. "And still now everyone's like, 'what hair colour is that?'"
Kieran made seven lengthy trips across the US, often piggybacking on his day job as an environmental photographer. One surprising state: Alabama, which many Brits associate with racism and NASA. "I knew it for racism and Nasa," he said. "In my head it was stuck in the 60s but Birmingham is an incredibly vibrant city." He met Rachel Releford, who says when she goes out with her daughter Liliana, people assume she's the nanny. "I'm like, 'nope, she's mine'," Rachel said. Some of her grandparents' friends were hesitant about her dating a white man, but her grandparents said, "Go for it. He's a cool guy, he's a sweet one."
Also in Alabama, Kieran met Henry Davis and his son Henry Davis II. The elder Henry has lost his red hair but says he looked just like his son at that age. "We're not really sure where it comes from," he said. "My dad is turning grey now. He'll get some red in his beard, and then it kind of goes grey."
Kieran knows "ginger" can be an insult, but he uses it for its descriptive power: "red is the colour of fire engines and blood whereas ginger has a golden tone to it." He sees ginger hair as "a golden thread" weaving through America's diverse and difficult history, showing connections between people. "We are all made of the same stuff and with the ginger hair it shows."
No one exemplifies this better than a young lad named Cali, also from Alabama. "His background is everything - European, African-American, Hispanic and indigenous as well," Kieran said. His gran is white but couldn't marry a black man in Alabama even after the courts made it legal, so she moved to Georgia and started a family there. "It's an incredibly diverse family."
In Scotland, up to 13% of the population - about 700,000 people - are natural redheads, the highest percentage anywhere. Globally, less than 2% have red hair, but Kieran's research suggests the US figure is higher: "We landed on about 4% for the genetic prevalence." That means Gingertown, if all American gingers gathered, would be about 14 million strong. "It's a big city. You would see it from space it would be so bright."
Kieran notes that Americans tend to know where they came from. "Everyone has self-consciously moved from somewhere," he says, including Native Americans, who were moved from other parts of America. His book is a road trip through the US, using this unique trait to understand the country.
Kieran was heartened by the recent men's football World Cup, which got people excited about the US again despite political divisions. He's glad to see visitors saying "it is not what I expected." "There's such a lot of amazing people and communities there," he said. "People you might connect with and agree with on a lot of things. I'm quite heartened that the football has revealed that. I feel quite patriotic for America now."