A Photographer's Portraits of Her Dad

"Janet Delaney's father, Bill, worked as a salon-to-salon salesman, peddling hair and beauty products throughout the greater Los Angeles area for thirty-two years. In 1980, when Delaney was twenty-seven and her father was preparing to retire, she decided to photograph him at work. She disdained the things her father sold-Revlon "Ever-So-Lively," Revlon Realistic rubber bands with perm rods, Diamond Delight by the gallon. "I would use none of it. In my mind, Revlon represented capitalism's oppressive hold on women's self-image,""

"she writes in a new book of photographs, " Too Many Products Too Much Pressure," which is being published, by the Los Angeles-based indie press Deadbeat Club, forty-five years after she took the pictures. "At the time, I was a bushy-haired hippie," Delaney, who is now seventy-three, told me. "I was a feminist, and I wouldn't wear lipstick, and I wouldn't do my hair up or wear nylons or any of the things that my dad attributed to success and a good presentation," she added."

Janet Delaney photographed her father, Bill, while he worked as a salon-to-salon salesman in the greater Los Angeles area in 1980, when she was twenty-seven and he was preparing to retire. Bill sold Revlon "Ever-So-Lively," Revlon Realistic rubber bands with perm rods, and Diamond Delight by the gallon after thirty-two years in the trade. Delaney rejected those products and their meanings, viewing Revlon as representing capitalism's oppressive hold on women's self-image. Delaney identified as a bushy-haired hippie and feminist who avoided lipstick, styling, and nylons. A book titled Too Many Products Too Much Pressure was published by Los Angeles-based Deadbeat Club forty-five years after the photographs were taken.

Read at The New Yorker