The Philadelphia-born photographer turns his lens to an interpretation of Black masculinity in a process that asks viewers to let down their guard and cast aside their preconceptions. His intimate portraits of friends and peers use elements like leather, lace, fishnets, and bondage to center sensual beauty. The breadth of queer iconography within each image lays bare his radical courage to create and live freely. “Younger me would not even take these images,” he says. “Half my family is Muslim and half Christian. To be able to do this took a lot of healing, self-acceptance, and bravery, to be able to just walk out of my house and be a Black gay person. I would truly rather die than to not live my life as freely as I do. I don’t want to die with what ifs and having questions as to if I was ever my true self.”