Beard

Matthew Rainwaters

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781452101651
• eBook ISBN: 9781452110349
• Subtopic: Photography

"Manages to sidestep any hint of kitsch, instead offering honest portraits of hirsute men sporting looks from sublime to decidedly odd and over the top." — The Dallas Morning News
Hundreds of bearded men strutted their stuff at the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, and photographer Matthew Rainwaters was there to capture it all. This resulting collection of portraits features the bushiest, most stylish, and downright weirdest beards from around the world. Taken straight on, the photographs are stark and stunning, and the beards speak for themselves. Alongside the images are essays by several of the championship competitors, including $teven Ra$pa and his beard Prepostero. A magnificent showcase of chops, bristles, and whiskers, this book belongs on the shelf of any true facial hair connoisseur.
"A stunning series of stark, visually articulate portraits. Alongside the formidable chops, bristles and whiskers, ranging from the classics to freestyle fare, are essays by prominent competitors that crack ajar the door to a fascinating subculture . . . Playful and poetic in a delightfully offbeat way, Beard is at once a portal to a weird and wonderful alternate reality and an invitation to revisit, with a smile and a wink, our relationship with patience, character, and nonconformity." — The Marginalian
"Beard does a great job of documenting the experiences of some of the competitors, (including Rainwaters' friend, Craig Steckbeck, who grew out his beard for 2 years in preparation for the event) and of showing the rest of us just how inadequate our beards really are. If you don't get the book for the amazing photos, you can get it as a guide to your next beard style." — Chubstr

INTRODUCTION

MATTHEW RAINWATERS

IN THE SPRING OF 2007 I FOUND MYSELF QUITTING MY JOB in the middle of a teachers’ meeting. I had taught photography for three years in a Los Angeles high school, and I was done with it. A few months later I was living in Austin, Texas, putting together a portfolio and trying to restart my career as a photographer. That’s when I met Craig Steckbeck, a bearded and burly graphic designer working for an upstart bottled tea company.

I found out Craig had just won a local beard contest and was planning to shave his face due to the intense summer heat. So I made a portrait of him and then told him about an international beard contest I’d heard about taking place in Alaska in two years’ time. It was perfect: He could compete in a world class competition, and I could experience the majesty of Alaska. The only catch—Craig couldn’t shave his beard for the next two years.

So that’s how we found ourselves, two years later, at the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. The scene was unreal. Huge mountains hugged the city from all sides, and crazy-looking hirsute men flooded the streets and bars downtown. There was an odd mixture of competition and camaraderie: these men had grown and cultivated their facial hair—to excess—for most of their lives and they were fiercely committed to the art of grooming.

The day before the competition featured a beard parade, the obligatory press meetings, and a drunken happy hour at the event center. But tensions were also running high. I witnessed an intense debate about the location of the next world championships. Dozens of different accents, all offering an opinion, are fairly hard to follow, but I think I understood that the European contingent wanted the next battle to take place in Europe, while the American team wanted it in Australia. I had no idea that beard growers could be so opinionated and passionate.

The day of the event came, and the veteran competitors arrived in elaborate period costumes that matched their faces perfectly; some had replica guns in their belts, others masterfully carved pipes in their mouths, whale harpoons in hand, or, of course, lederhosen. The rookies looked more thrown together—good enough to get them in the door but not up to the caliber of most of these men. As round after round of judging came and went, the competitors headed toward the bar and then stumbled into the room where I’d set up my light and camera.

It makes my job easy when everywhere I look there is another striking personality willing to have his photo taken. For me it was important to document these guys in the most honest way I could. I am aware the subject itself is a little kitschy, and I didn’t want the photos to be the same. I had to shoot them in a style that didn’t embellish the characters they had invented for themselves; their facial hair did a pretty good job of that. To do this I used a light that didn’t create any shadows on the face. When they were in front of the camera I asked them to relax and clear their head, and then in most cases I made mug shots in which the hair became the sole subject.

The result is a catalog of this strange and unusual culture of men, united the world over through their primitive yet elaborate grooming techniques. A book of beards.

BRENT NUTING | Austin, TX

BRETT SCHMITZ | Granite Falls, WA

DEVIN CARA | Springfield, MO

RYAN HOPPE | Detroit, MI

BURKE ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• TO BEARD OR NOT TO BEARD—IT’S NOT A QUESTION
• MY REAL FACE
• THE MOOSE WHISKERER
• THE ASCENSION OF THE IMPERIAL
• PREPOSTERO SAYS BOING!
• TO THE LAST WHISKER
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright