Barbershops of america: a photographic essay

Barbershops of America is a new book by photographer Rob Hammer, documenting the disappearing world of an industry with countless years of history and décor as diverse as the people and places that make up the States. Rob started photographing old shops in Southern California in September 2011, but what started as a fun personal project soon developed into something much bigger. We spoke to Rob to find out more about his project.. Why did you start photographing barbershops in the first place? "During a trip to the East Coast, I was photographing shops in NYC and found an amazing barber in Spanish Harlem. It was owned by an Italian guy who emigrated almost 60 years ago and had been there for 52 years. It was a great place, covered in history and displaying as much character as his old Italian face. In one week his landlord was due to kick him out and make room for a Chinese take-out restaurant, whose owners were willing to pay much more in rent. He was a visible wreck about the whole thing. I could see that his shop was literally his entire life, and there was nothing he could do to stop them from taking it." How did that shape the project? "The whole experience changed the way I thought about the project. It became clear how amazing these old shops are and how quickly they were disappearing. It made me decide to take the project up a notch, documenting real shops in all of the lower 48 states of the U.S." [hji-gallery-legacy] How did you fund the book? "Knowing it would be a costly venture I decided to try Kickstarter for help with funding. However being slightly overcome with excitement, I did a very poor job with planning and executing the whole campaign which made it a total failure. However, that failure only pushed me further - by making me realize how important the project was, I decided to fund it on my own and to take it one step farther by including all 50 states." How did the project progress from there?  "For the next two and half years I drove around the U.S. searching for authentic barbershops. Staying off the highways and scouring small towns led me to some real American gems; shops with countless years of history, and décor as diverse as the people and places that make up our country." What did you learn? It was a huge learning experience, giving me a new appreciation for our country and it’s many different personalities. Most of all it reassured my theory that real barbershops are an important piece of American history that will soon be gone and which deserve to be documented. Over two and a half years, I travelled roughly 50,000 miles and visited over 600 shops. Barbershops of America is a hardcover coffee table book filled with pictures and stories from more than 70 shops in all 50 states of the USA. The book is available now at www.barbershopsofamerica.com