'We've been conditioned to think that good looking ginger men don't exist, but there are a lot out there,' said British photographer and natural red head, Thomas Knights.

In his first solo exhibition, opening September 3 at New York's BOSI gallery, Mr Knights has captured 40 red headed American men to challenge long-held stereotypes, and prove that they can be leading-man material, too.

'Red headed actors are portrayed as undesirable, angry, and weak characters - or the bad guy,' said the 31-year-old photographer. 'They are never the heartthrob, the hero or the action star, and it has created this notion that all ginger men are ugly and weak. I want to show that they're not.'

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'We've been conditioned to think that good looking ginger men don't exist, but there are a lot out there,' said British photographer and natural red head, Thomas Knights

In his first solo exhibition, opening September 3 at New York's BOSI gallery, Mr Knights has captured 40 red headed American men to challenge long-held stereotypes, and prove that they can be leading-man material

It is often said that between one per cent and two per cent of the world's population, or 70 to 140 million people, have red hair.

But Mr Knights, who grew up 'despising' his red hair - so much so that he dyed it blonde for ten years - believes that there is a polarized difference between women with red hair and men with red hair, something he hopes to change.

'There is a general vibe that it is shameful to date a ginger guy, but with females it's the opposite,' he explained. 'People assume ginger women are highly sexual, feisty beings: the ultimate woman. But with men, they are emasculated and seen to be unsexy, undesirable and unattractive.'

Mr Knights believes that Hollywood has a lot to answer for. He holds the media accountable for portraying red hair as aspirational for women in popular culture, 'whereas for the men, there is a complete lack of positive role models.'

'Who decided that a red head male was not going to be aspirational?' he asked.

Who decided that a red head male was not going to be aspirational?

'There is definitely an ongoing decision that's being made in Hollywood, and it has created this notion that it isn't possible for a ginger male to play a hero or a leading man; that it's going to polarize your audience if you put a ginger man in that role,' he explained, pointing to Damien Lewis in Homeland as 'interesting' because although he is portrayed as a 'sexy' character - he is still 'playing to type' as the bad guy, at the end of the day.

'We have been conditioned to think something by a group of people, and now, it has gone so far that actually people's innate sexual desires have been manipulated so much that they do not find red headed men attractive.'

'Red headed actors are portrayed as undesirable,' said the 31-year-old photographer. 'They are never the heartthrob... and it has created this notion that all ginger men are ugly...I want to show that they're not'

Most models in Mr Knights' exhibition, titled Red Hot, have similar stories of ten-year-long journeys of self-discovery, until they felt they could wear their red hair with pride

'My whole project is to try and prevent [insecurities]- I want ginger boys to feel confident and comfortable with having red hair growing up,' said the photographer

Indeed, in 2012 the journal Psychological Studies published a study that found red headed men were rejected the most when trying to ask women out.

Researcher Nicolas Guéguen examined how hair color alone could influence a person's chances of 'scoring' at a nightclub, asking the same set of men to wear different-colored wigs to approach various women over the course of the evening, and measured how often their advances were accepted or rebuffed.

The experiment was able to separate the influence of hair color itself from other features of physical attractiveness, such as facial features, skin tone, height, and body proportions - and found red hair is not considered 'generically attractive' by most women.

From an early age, we are conditioned to how a certain type of man - the hero, the knight in shining armor, the pinup - must look: tall, dark and handsome, or tall, blonde and handsome. Mr Knights said he has struggled with this reality since he was four, when his mother first took him to see The Little Mermaid.

'I cried the whole way home because I said I wanted to have hair like the prince,' he admitted. 'From day one I hated it. I had no sense of pride of my head hair, I hated being different from the archetypal handsome man.

Mr Knights said he tried to choose red haired models that the 'general public deem as attractive' in order to have the widest appeal

He then tried 'lots of different colors' for the background of this images 'until it became clear that blue really set off the hair' - an intentional choice to 'sell the lifestyle dream' of being ginger

'Your eye isn't being distracted from anything other than the hair. Suddenly, the hair is the star,' he said, adding that people have even admitted that they 'now have a thing for ginger guys' because of Red Hot

'There wasn't anyone representing what I was on screen, and those people who were were the undesirable characters which added fuel to the fire. So I felt insecure; I used to clean shave and dyed my eyebrows and body hair. It was like a body dysmorphia,' he explained, adding that eventually, he simply grew tired of caring.

'It was a real effort, and expensive! After ten years, I was like, "I really cant be bothered with it anymore. So I shaved my hair off, and started afresh.

To Mr Knights' surprise, he started getting lots of compliments from people who would ask if 'that' was my natural hair color.

'Being a little bit older, I felt like I could actually run with it,' he said. 'And I never looked back.'

Most models in Mr Knights' exhibition, titled Red Hot, have similar stories of ten-year-long journeys of self-discovery, until they felt they too could wear their red hair with pride.

'My whole project is to try and prevent that from every happening again - I want ginger boys to feel confident and comfortable with having red hair growing up.'

'Without knowing it, we are so manipulated by the media and advertising, and this is just one example of it. I've even had blonde guys come up to me and say, "I wish I was ginger!" So the exhibition is working'

While Mr Knights' greatest aim is to see a young male red head 'become a bit of a Hollywood leading man', his ultimate goal is to have a 'ginger Jame Bond'

Mr Knights said he tried to use models that the 'general public deem as attractive' in order to have the widest appeal. He then tried ' lots of different colors' for the background of this images, 'until it became clear that blue really set off the hair' - an intentional choice to 'sell the lifestyle dream' of being ginger.

'Your eye isn't being distracted from anything other than the hair. Suddenly, the hair is the fashion accessory; the the hair becomes the star,' he said, adding that people have even admitted that they 'now have a thing for ginger guys' because of Red Hot.

'Without knowing it, we are so manipulated by the media and advertising, and this is just one example of it. I've even had blonde guys come up to me and say, "I wish I was ginger!" So the exhibition is seemingly working.'

While his greatest aim is to see a young male red head 'become a bit of a Hollywood leading man', his ultimate goal is to have a 'ginger Jame Bond'.