As a general rule, when you bump into someone who has a collection of anything, your oddity sensors begin to hum. Whether or not you alert the authorities depends on if that collection consists of wine, or 6000 handpainted figurines hewn from solid blocks of human fat.At first glance collecting gingers, folks with flaming red follicles, seems to fall squarely into the latter category, but photographer Anthea Pokroy and her I Collect Gingers project doesn't raise the ''serial killer" alarm."The project started in 2010 as a way to try and understand how people construct identity through physical traits. I also wanted to look at what the repercussions of that were," said Pokroy.I Collect Gingers is essentially a compendium of folks from around the country, and more recently the world, whom genetics have seen fit to bless with a fiery crown and a multitude of beauty spots.The criteria to join is gingerness - a lock of hair and proof in passport photo format.Pokroy first exhibited her work in 2013 and the response convinced her that it was time to give her mission an international feel and so earlier this year she sounded a call to gingers across the globe to join in."After my first exhibition I started getting messages from places like South America, Asia and the Middle East. I also heard that there may be tribes in North Africa with red hair and so I felt I needed to explore this," she said.At this point people's general eagerness to participate in the project means that the number can only swell.She puts this down to the project's light- hearted façade, though she does warn that it's not all fun and games."I want people to have fun but it is not really a fun project. I am trying to get people to think about how we create and collect identity based on a random characteristic, like freckles and hair," she said.Given the current sociopolitical climate, she may be onto something. For any number of reasons people's physical manifestations land them in a box. Many become prisoners of their skin, hair, weight, or whatever cards life has dealt them. Pokroy seems to be challenging us to ask, "What's in the box?"To join the collection visit www.icollectgingers.com..