"Boys Don’t Cry" is an image that delicately challenges the archaic but persistent notion that men must wrap their emotions in stoicism.

The young man depicted, his head bowed in a solemn moment of introspection, is dressed in baroque ornaments. This choice of clothes recalls a time when expressions of grandeur and beauty were not confined to a single sex. Yes, it’s sensitive, but of the kind that has become very familiar, especially since romanticism. The image echoes the cultural cliché that men must hold back tears. Yet here, the face of the subject suggests a tale of unspoken sorrow or reflective melancholy, a visual representation that men, too, maintain a depth of feeling.

Photography serves as a contemporary critique of the entrenched cultural construction of gender roles, which from an early age indoctrinates boys within a normative framework of emotional suppression, pitting them against the feminine without consent or question. Despite significant progress in gender representation, our collective consciousness still bears the heavy imprint of a centuries-old cultural construction of the binary sexes.

"Boys Don’t Cry" is therefore a visual ode to the beauty of vulnerability and an invitation to reject the outdated dichotomy of sexual emotions. It is a call for a nuanced understanding of masculinity, embracing the full spectrum of human sentiment.