Growing up in a small town in northern Massachusetts, John Arsenault spent a great deal of time during his childhood in his Aunt Kathy’s hair salon. Opened in the late 1960s, Kathy’s Beauty Nook has catered to three generations of women, most of whom now range from 60 to 96 years of age. Arsenault enjoyed the upbeat, bustling environment of the beauty parlor, and it was there that his aunt first recognized and later encouraged her nephew’s exceptional creativity. Now in his thirties, Arsenault has spent the past two years returning periodically to Haverhill, Massachusetts in order to photograph his aunt and her colorful clientele. Aside from shooting just clippers, curlers, and blue-tinted coiffures, Arsenault is documenting a tight-knit community of women who have shared the majority of their lives with one another. While the photographs are gorgeously crafted and often very funny, there is a notable sensitivity, too, as the artist’s subjects are also the people of his personal life.
