“I’ve been accused of trying to homosexualize African men,” photographer Denisse Ariana Pérez told me as we discussed photos she’s showcasing in Fotografiska New York’s exhibit Nude, a worldwide selection of nude portraits as seen through the female gaze. Pérez specializes in photographing men, particularly Black African men, and she purposely works with her subjects to draw them out of dominant ideas of what men should be.
“I like the challenge of it,” said Pérez, “of confronting more traditional masculinity and in some way trying to bend it and question it, and to create a space for men to explore and go beyond what they have been allowed to.”
