“Buds” is a photo series produced in collaboration with photographer Alexandre Borba under the art collective topbtm and presented at the group exhibition Blümchensex (2016, Villa Leonhardi, Palmengarten, Frankfurt, Germany).
The series explores the aesthetic tensions between flowers – elements usually associated to femininity – and the male body. Inspired by the hipster photographic trend that popularized male portraits with ornamented beards ca. 2015-2016, the intention was to re-imagine this representation of the "sensitive man" in a more intimate and less idealized aesthetic, focusing on the erotic appeal of the plants’ reproductive organs.
The project later expanded to Instagram (@wearetopbtm), where the Polaroid format was left aside but eroticism and the grey area between roughness and fragility remained a central element.
