Got hair? The sensational photography of J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

Blake Gopnik, art critic for the Washington Post, wrote in yesterday's front–page Style section story about the signature photography of J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, who since 1968 has documented Nigerian culture in a series of photographs now numbering in the thousands.

Gopnik was mesmerized by Ojeikere's pictures of "the amazing sculptural hairstyles worn by women in his native Nigeria," which he found the most interesting of all the works in the new show, "African Art Now: Masterpieces From the Jean Pigozzi Collection," which opened last week at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

The "Hairstyles" series, consisting of nearly 1,000 images, is the largest segment of Ojeikere's body of work.

Said Ojeikere in a biography on the museum's website, "All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge."

Above, his "Onile gogoro," taken in 1975.

The show features about 100 objects of the 6,000 in Pigozzi's collection.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art is on the south side of the Mall at 10th Street NW. 202-633-4600. www.nmafa.si.edu. The show remains up through February 26, 2006.