With Soul Flower, Tavon Taylor Finds Empowerment In the Multidimensionality Of Black Queerness

With family, community, and memory informing his work, Taylor focuses on creating images that explore and celebrate Black queerness through portraiture, still life, and landscape photography. The delicate and detailed photographs included in the series are directly inspired by a past love and a past version of self, and investigate the careful maneuvering of maintaining control while distributing unconditional love. A tapestry of his journey to self-acceptance and self-reconciliation, the images explore the empowering potential of accepting the full range of his intersectional identity as a Black queer, by finding strength and peace in vulnerability, outside of societal constraints. In his own words, “I had to shed the idea that only allowed me to be one thing, which was already set by society. I decided to step away from the idea of being masked with intimidation. I think being silenced for so long showed me how to utilize silence in a way that captivates a tension that reveals itself constantly throughout life. This project represents growth, and shows that the way to fully blossom is to stand firmly in openness.”