A Fifteen-Year Documentary Record of American Barbershops in Transition
For more than fifteen years, Barbershops of America has documented traditional American barbershops across all fifty states. The archive includes over 250 shops — interiors, exteriors, portraits, and recorded interviews — captured during a period of visible generational transition within the trade. Many of the long-standing legacy shops photographed in the early years of the project have since permanently closed.
The work began by documenting barbershops that had operated for fifty years or more, often anchored by a single proprietor whose presence defined the space. Over time, a new wave of barbers emerged — younger practitioners consciously reviving traditional techniques and aesthetics while reinterpreting them for a contemporary audience. As one generation ages and another reshapes the craft, the American barbershop continues to evolve.
These photographs now function not only as contemporary documents but as historical records of environments that once served as daily gathering places within working-class and immigrant communities.
Rather than presenting a fixed image of what a barbershop “should” be, this archive observes the institution across time — recording continuity, reinvention, and gradual cultural shift as they unfold.
Across fifteen years of documentation, distinct generational phases within the American barbershop have become visible. The archive includes long-standing legacy shops that operated for decades with little alteration, often defined by a single barber whose presence shaped the space. Many of these environments reflected an analog continuity — hand-painted signage, worn barber chairs, and interiors that evolved slowly over time.
In the mid 2010s, a wave of younger barbers emerged who consciously revived traditional barbering techniques and aesthetics. Straight razors, vintage design elements, and an emphasis on craft signaled a renewed interest in heritage. Over time, even these revival-era shops have matured into an established generation within the trade.
As new interpretations continue to surface, the project records the institution as it adapts — shaped by shifting neighborhood economics, branding, design trends, and evolving ideas of community and masculinity. Rather than isolating a single “era,” the archive observes the barbershop across time.
Over the course of this project, many of the barbershops photographed have quietly disappeared. Some closed when aging barbers retired or passed away. Others were forced out by rising rents or redevelopment that reshaped entire neighborhoods. In several cases, interiors that had remained unchanged for decades were dismantled within weeks.
These closures are rarely marked by ceremony. A hand-painted window is scraped clean. A barber chair is removed. The mirrors come down. What had once been a daily gathering place — a space defined by routine, memory, and long-standing relationships — simply ceases to exist.
The photographs made in those rooms now serve as records of spaces that cannot be reconstructed. They preserve not only the physical details of the shops, but also the atmosphere of continuity that defined them. With each closure, a particular configuration of community disappears. The archive stands as evidence that these places were here — and that they mattered.
For generations, traditional barbershops have operated as informal civic spaces. They are places of routine and conversation, where relationships are built over years rather than transactions. Beyond grooming, they provide continuity within neighborhoods experiencing constant change.
The barbershop has historically functioned as an accessible entrepreneurial model — often immigrant-owned, family-operated, and sustained through long-term client relationships. Its durability has relied less on branding and more on presence: the same chair, the same barber, the same conversations repeated across decades.
As economic pressures reshape commercial corridors nationwide, the erosion of these spaces signals a broader shift in locally owned trades. This archive does not romanticize the past; it documents a cultural institution navigating adaptation, reinvention, and, at times, disappearance.
Selected works from Barbershops of America have been exhibited in galleries and museums and are included in private and institutional collections. The archive continues to evolve and is available for museum exhibitions, academic collaboration, and curatorial research.
Institutional inquiries and exhibition proposals are welcomed.
A curated selection of photographs from the archive is available as limited edition archival pigment prints here.
Images from Barbershops of America are available for editorial, commercial, and institutional licensing. Contact me for details.