Boldly Bald Portraits By Rankin Challenge A Male Taboo

For some, it is a source of shame and a trigger for frequent mirror checks: is my hairline receding?

- Harriet Sherwood

Is there a thin patch on top of my head? But for the photographer Rankin and the artists Scott Kelly and Ben Polkinghorne , male baldness is something to celebrate. Baldpieces, a series of portraits of men adorned with striking headwear, focuses on masculine beauty and challenges an enduring taboo.

Two-thirds of men begin to lose hair on their heads by the age of 35. By the age of 50, 85% of men will have significantly thinner hair. Kelly and Polkinghorne noticed that it was a subject many men were unwilling to discuss openly. But, they said, everyone “can relate to it in some way, shape or form. Balding men, girlfriends of balding men, even sons of balding men sporting full heads of hair.”

Kelly said: “Men do everything possible to hide or fill these gaps. We thought it would be interesting to imagine a world where, rather than hiding or burying it, baldness was promoted and became a thing to be proud of.”