Thomas Knights is the red hot photographer and music video director, who’s worked with Dazed & Confused, ID, Marie Claire and Love, alongside being a regular collaborator with club queen, Jodie Harsh, on those sizzling Room Service videos.
He’s also a proud and outspoken red-headed man. In his current photographic exhibition RED HOT, Knights takes the red-headed male, once a subject of ridicule and taunts, and elevates him to a plinth of sexy, sultry coolness. We spoke to the main man himself to find out more about this intriguing project and admirable campaign…
What is the Red Hot exhibition in your own words?
With Red Hot I’m re-branding the ginger male stereotype from the weak underdog to the alpha male hero. I want to make it the most aspirational hair colour for a boy. Sexy, strong and hot!
What gave you the idea and inspired you to see it through to this admirable practice?
I’m ginger myself and have always felt we have an unfair rap in popular culture. How often is the undesirable character in films ginger? Almost to enhance how undesirable they are: never the heartthrob, never the hero, and never the action star. It has been in my head to do this exhibition, which is essentially a marketing campaign, for five or six years and then it’s been two to three years since I started shooting it. When I came up with the Red Hot name I knew I was onto something. So long as I nailed the photography!
As a redheaded man, have you experienced discrimination or teasing when growing up?
Well, yes I did, and it made me create Red Hot. I guess my reaction to negativity is to try and find the positive. A bully will not stop being a bully if you tell them how bad the victim feels. It will just give them extra fuel. You have to make the thing they are bullying someone about, something they want to be. That also gives the victim more confidence. It’s the only way. Teachers and parents may try and protect kids but they are certainly not everywhere.
“Love it! We are reclaiming GINGA!”
How do you feel about the term ‘ginger’?
Love it! We are reclaiming GINGA! Which is often used as a slang put down, and making it the word to describe a Red Hot guy.
Where did you source the models for in your exhibition?
I started the project of with the only ginger male models in London, there were about four or something. Now every agency has a couple. They are exotic and unusual, but critically desirable in the fashion world and currently having a ‘moment’. Then I street casted and found guys on Facebook and through recommendations.
Do you feel the vibe is changing for the sidelining of red-headed people in popular culture?
Gay culture and the fashion world have long embraced the ginger male as sexy. It’s the wider public – especially straight men and women who I need to convince. Red Hot aims to appeal to a broad audience in order to have maximum impact. I want women to want to have a ginger baby – not feel ashamed of it. I want straight men to think of ginger guys as equals, and I want gay guys to adore them in equal measure. I don’t think fetishisation is the answer – it can be counter productive. An equal platform to everyone else is what we are gunning for.
Taking a look at the guys in the exhibition photos we are truly in love with ginger boys! Recently, there were internet stories that the red headed gene is dying out. How do you feel about that? Are you worried that such a beautiful breed of boys could be extinct in 100 years?
Not after Red Hot… I think there will be a ginger baby boom!
• Red Hot runs ‘til 22nd December at the Gallery in Redchurch Street, 50 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, E2 7DP.
10am-9pm (till 5pm on Tuesday 17th & Sunday 22nd). Free admission.
• www.galleryinredchurchstreet.com
• Underwear by banglads.com
• Photography by Thomas Knights
