Sultana

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of ‘Fresh Prince of Belair’, Brooklyn-based illustrator Leland Foster teamed up with fashion e-commerce site Lyst to re-imagine what the cast would look like in 2015.

Will - Carlton - Ashley  - Phil  - Geoffrey - Hilary

In Conversation with Brandon Stanciell - The Man Who Loves Flowers.

One of the first-ever photographs I came across involving a black man tenderly clutching flowers and gazing into the lens of the camera was a self-portrait by Cameroonian visual artist Samuel Fosso. 

Taken in 1977, the image is titled “L’amour c’est a tendresse.” As much as I appreciate the slightly mystical nature of black and white photographs, I can’t help but wonder how striking such a seemingly simple image would have looked like in colour.

Almost four decades later, photographer Brandon Stanciell’s series, though unrelated to Fosso’s work, beautifully and unexpectedly fills that gap - and so much more. Armed with a deep sense of curiosity and awe, I briefly chatted to Brandon about his work. 

On his relationship with photography:

In April 2014 I decided to put my foot down and really pursue photography. With a hand-me-down DSLR and a $12 film camera, that I still use to this day, I began to pursue and express my photographic vision.

On the beginnings of his series “The Man Who Loved Flowers”:

My work in my series “The Man Who Loved Flowers” expresses the love I have for flowers and color. It is evident in the different photographic mediums I use. You can see it with my digital work and feel it with my film work.

What I do, is for the love of flowers.

On the inspiration behind the title and concept of this series, and the overall significance of flowers:

“The Man Who Loved Flowers” began as a name I adopted from a short story by Stephen King. I feel a lot of how I go about my work relates to that story, with the exception of the serial killer portion. Flowers play a huge role in my work - they’re my staple. More often than not, my concepts hit me out of nowhere, almost as though they are an epiphany I’ve been waiting for all week.

For my new portrait series, my main focus has been on color. With a plain white wall as the constant background, I place my subject in front of this deliberately. This is done in order to portray the subject as the source of all color. This draws the viewer’s eyes directly to them. Though many have mistaken a couple of the photos of Kristopher Young (the model in Thinker of Tender/Exquisite Thoughts) as me, it isn’t. However, that particular series is a representation of my thought process on my work so I guess it’s good they think I look like him. Most of my subjects are close friends, people I’ve met through social networking. There isn’t really anything in particular I look for when I recruit and shoot my subjects. Most have this calming cool quality about them that I want to portray with flowers so I do so.

On the impression and portrayal of black men’s sensitivity in his series:

I can see how some can get that feel from my work. You don’t see a lot of black males being photographed, let alone photographed with flowers. I think what I’m really trying to portray/say in this series is that black is beautiful and has always been beautiful, and the flowers are a compliment to that beauty.