Two Princes

What is the American spirit? Tearing back the layers of pop-culture and history, it was always the right to carve out your own identity, without question. Embedded in the harsh landscape, lay the hope that people could spend life in an orbit of self-discovery. To be great, and to persevere towards a land of shared liberty. This mind-set stretches far beyond the borders of the USA; it dances up into the land of the Rockies. To a place where the air is crisp and the sun falls on canyons of clear water - Canada.

Perhaps the brilliance of the American continent stems from its blending of cultures. Being a home to a diverse population of dreamers, regardless of their origins - who together, mold a greater good. In this story, both Isham and Daynis are tied by their shared origin of Guadeloupe, and the merging of two worlds that is both harmonious and at times, confusing. This meeting of hometowns, roots, and identities bubble-up into a land of new perspectives and progress. Opening a narrative around black masculinity, photographer Mallory Lowe focuses on the organic closeness between both boys. Minute touches of softness question the macho-culture that weighs heavily on their shoulders.

Further commenting on this issue, stylist Chad Burton plays with androgynous forms. Long-tunics and items typically reserved for the female body are reworked with a new, boyish energy. It is this blur of innocence and hardness; that innate wish to connect to another, that radiates across the story. In leaving behind the familiar, a portal towards either survival or darkness opens. These are boys who have chosen to be strong – to thrive, rather than to fall. But we all have moments of longing. In between the silence and the merging of bodies; there is a calm that flows stronger than any river’s current.