The 'Black Men With Flowers' Photo Series Aims To Cast Black Men In A Delicate Light

All photos courtesy of Lynette Luna.

Soft, sensitive and delicate. That’s how Berlin-based Nigerian photographer Lynette Luna wants viewers of her latest photograph series to consider Black men.

The plainly titled Black Men With Flowers presents striking portraits of Ghanaian model Nana Ansah adorned in multicolored flowers of all shapes and sizes. With this series, Luna aims to show “a side [of Black men] that is often ignored by society” through the “delicacy of flowers and the femininity of bright colors,” she tells Okayafrica.

“In society, Black men have often had to become hyper-masculine to deal with the intense pressures projected onto them by society,” says Luna. “When we look into the general opinion of black men, we think of them as very hard, calloused, and tough. We do not allow them to be projected in ways of weakness or softness.”

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As for her inspiration, the 24-year-old artist revealed that the concept for the shoot stems from a quotation by the late African-American writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it."

Check out the full photograph series above and visit Luna’s Instagram page to view more of her work.