Free
On Saturday, May 18th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, please join us at Arcana: Books on the Arts for a book signing and conversation with Rohina Hoffman and Aline Smithson in celebration of the launch of Hair Stories.

Hair Stories is a series of excerpted interviews and color portraits of a diverse array of women that explores the complex relationship women have with their hair. Indian-born, Los Angeles–based photographer Rohina Hoffman deployed the interviewing skills she has developed in her training as a neurologist to establish an intimate rapport that allowed for a truthful dialogue about the role of hair in these women’s lives. Though conceived and shot before the #MeToo movement, this salient project presents hair as a metaphor for identity, femininity, and the manner in which women struggle for control over their own bodies in a sometimes misogynistic world. Hair Stories shows that hair is more than just style or aesthetics; it is a physical manifestation of the ongoing hope and history of women.

Born in India and raised in New Jersey, Rohina Hoffman is a fine art photographer whose practice uses portraiture and the natural world to investigate themes of identity, home, women’s issues, and adolescence. A graduate of Brown University Medical School and resident at UCLA Medical Center, her training led to a career as a neurologist. While an undergraduate at Brown University, Rohina also studied photography at RISD and was a staff photographer for the Brown Daily Herald. A skilled observer of her patients, Rohina was instilled with a deep and unique appreciation of the human experience. Her ability to forge the sacred trust between doctor and patient has been instrumental in fostering a parallel connection between photographer and subject.

Aline Smithson is an artist, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles. She is best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, her work is influenced by the elevated unreal. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies. After a decade-long career as a New York Fashion Editor, Aline returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice. She founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day, has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, and has curated and jurored numerous exhibitions.