Barber Shops of Durham County
Initially, I was drawn to barber shops as a community and a subject because they seemed like an antique in our modern world. Not that hair cutting had become obsolete, but the idea of barber shops as the place to go for haircutting and as a de facto men's club had diminished. Barber shops were an institution from a past era where men would have their “regular” cut (that their “regular” barber knew from memory) and a shave. By 1991, unisex hair salons were a growing business across America, including Durham, and barber shops were already suffering from the loss of business. Increasingly, boys and men were visiting unisex hair salons instead of barber shops for hair cuts. Barber shops now seemed like a relic of the past, yet still alive and in business (at least for the moment.) I urgently wanted to learn more about the barber shops, capture and preserve these institutions before the shops, the barbers, and their communities disappeared. I also was optimistic that the photographs captured within the walls of the barber shops would provide a portrait of the larger community, the county of Durham, North Carolina.
Durham was founded in 1853 as a railroad depot for the North Carolina Railroad, along the tracks between Raleigh and Hillsborough. The town grew rapidly after the Civil War, largely because of the burgeoning tobacco industry, and later textile mills. Durham's Black community grew, and had a neighborhood called Hayti at its core. Then business in Durham began a long decline starting in the 1930's. Hit first were textile mills and then tobacco companies.
The migration of people from downtown areas to suburban neighborhoods, known as "suburban flight," along with a decrease in textile and tobacco fortunes led to downtown Durham’s fall off as a retail and business center, leaving vacant buildings and empty streets behind. Despite the changes in the urban landscape, Durham played an important role in the country’s Civil Rights movement, including sit-ins, and a visit from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The city witnessed new growth in the 1970’s and 1980’s with the construction of housing developments in the southern part of the city and a reviving of the downtown area.
Durham is also home to Duke University (where I completed my undergraduate studies), which was supported with significant financial gifts from the family of the successful tobacco magnate Washington Duke, and North Carolina Central University, the nation’s first publicly supported liberal arts college for African-Americans.
The Durham I knew from my time as a resident was a southern town with a lot of character, with monuments to its glorious past, such as the huge red brick cotton mills, but also with scars such as its vacant downtown area, and, like many southern cities, there seemed to be more racial tensions and less racial integration than I saw growing up in New York City.
I wanted to capture a true image of Durham. Not THE true image, if that could even exist. I was focused on a predominantly male community, but with the barber shop series, I hoped to capture a frozen image of Durham's past and present. I must confess that at first, I had something of a Norman Rockwell influenced vision of the quintessential barber shop with a barber's pole and Barbicide comb jar. The first barber shops I landed in were not far off from my pre-conceived image. Preston Beddingfield (known as “Red” to his clients and friends) was a World War II veteran and his Red’s Barber Shop on North Roxboro Road was a classic. Red’s had a beauty that matched my expectations. Red's had the chairs, the mirrors, the leather strops, Red in his white coat, the shaving cream machine, the razor, and beautiful natural light late in the afternoons that made photographs a pleasure to take. King's Barber Shop and Best Barber Shopwere similar to Red's in some ways. One quality they all had, as I soon realized, was that a large part of the Durham population, African Americans, were completely missing from these shops.
The barber shops I had focused my lens on so far were frequented by white men and boys. I realized at this stage that I had, unconsciously, brought my own life experience and race, as a twenty-two year old white male, to my preconception of a barber shop: "the barber shop"; what it should look like. Recognizing this in me, and wanting to get a broader view of the barber shop communities in Durham, I pushed beyond the world I knew.
I began to explore the neighborhoods of Durham deeper and found barber shops that were popular with African Americans. Barber shops with names such as Crystal Barber Shop, Plaza Barber Shop and Powell's Barber Shop. Like the first group of barber shops I visited, these barber shops appeared to cater to a single race. I did get a few odd looks as I walked into these barber shops for the first time, but no one ever suggested that I should leave. Like the addition of a new person in any community, and really not much different than the first time I walked into the first batch of barber shops with my medium format camera and tripod, it took a little "warming up", getting to know the barbers and the clientele. Pretty quickly, I think we all felt comfortable.
I spent the latter half of the project exploring the barber shops that were visited mainly by African American men and boys, including the Plaza Barber Shop and the Crystal Barber Shop, both on Fayetteville Street in the Hillside Park neighborhood of Durham. I was intrigued by the culture within each barber shop and the community connection among the men and boys in the barber shops. I found the beauty of these barber shops to be undeniable. Different than Red’s, Kings, and Best Barber, but just as beautiful in their character, culture, and energy.
Many of the photographs from this portfolio were captured in barber shops that have closed in the span of time since 1991, including Red’s Barber Shop, Powell's Barber Shop, King's Barber Shop, and Crystal Barber Shop have closed. Red Beddingfield passed away on March 17, 2009.
Barber shops have played an important role in their communities as a meeting place, and a locally owned small business that supports the local community and conversely is supported by the local community. I have attempted to capture and share aspects of the community and character of these barber shops and the community within. I hope this body of work serves to preserve an important historical layer of Durham's past.
A publication, Barber Shops of Durham County, is available on blurb.com.
© 2009 ted casey. all rights reserved.
Limited Edition Prints: Available as signed limited edition prints in two sizes, approximately 17”x24” and 23”x35”, unframed. The prints are produced using only archival materials and processes. See contact page for inquiries.