Gallery : Simply Red : One Man’s Passion for Flaming Tresses Sparks an Odyssey That Spans 20,000 Photos and 3 Years

Red hair. The man was obsessed with it. Fiery, pale, strawberry, titian, auburn--red hair was the only thing photographer Howard Schatz could not transpose, inside his head, into shades of gray.

“A black-and-white photographer looks in his camera and mentally converts colors to the way they will look,” Schatz says. “But when I saw red hair in my viewfinder, that was all I could see.”

So he decided to mingle his obsession with his art. Schatz switched to color film, and approached every red-haired man, woman or child he spied on San Francisco streets. Each got a card, announcing his redheaded photo project--and hundreds showed up at his studio door, eager to pose. Three years and 20,000 photos later, Schatz had the makings of his new book: “Seeing Red: The Rapture of Redheads.” It is a Valentine to genetic splendor, and to the six out of every 100 people who are born with red hair. His subjects, he learned, have a love-hate relationship with their orchid-rare hair: Men say they’re sometimes perceived as wimpish. Women say they must dress in special colors and wear unusual make-up. A ballerina complains she looks bald on stage unless lighting is precisely right. A coffee house waitress says she gets better tips, but more hits because of her hair. And one woman with flaming tresses says strangers are sometimes hostile to her hair. “They walk up, demand to know what I use to get such an outrageous shade--and refuse to believe that I was born this way.”

*This new Sunday feature will showcase books, photo essays, historic and family albums--ways we use images to capture the soul and spirit of the world around us. Reader suggestions are welcome. Write to Gallery, View, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Calif. 90053.