In Ecuadors mountains, a photographers search for ultra-long hair | [Video]

(CNN) — Over the past two decades, the Argentinian photographer Irina Werning has traveled around Latin America with a specific directive in mind: find women — and eventually, men — with the longest hair.

Titled “Las Pelilargas,” or “The Long-haired Ones,” the body of work celebrates the shared cultural reverence for long tresses across the region, in both small Indigenous communities and urban centers. In her interviews with the people she met and photographed, Werning heard many personal reasons for growing and maintaining ultra-long hair, but connecting stories was often its role in cultural identity and ancestral traditions.

“The true reason is invisible and passes from generation to generation,” Werning writes on her website. “It’s the culture of Latin America, where our ancestors believed that cutting hair was cutting life, that hair is the physical manifestation of our thoughts and our souls and our connection to the land.”

At the PhotoVogue festival …