Florida Boys

In Florida Boys, Josh Aronson journeys through Florida’s forests and swamps with young men from Miami, crafting tender portraits that open the myths of Southern masculinity to vulnerability and grace.

In Florida Boys, Miami-based artist Josh Aronson explores coming-of-age in the American South through a series of staged photographs made between 2020 and 2025. Traveling across Florida’s backroads with groups of young men, Aronson stages intimate scenes of rest, play, and friendship in the natural landscape. The work unravels the myth of the Southern male archetype—replacing its toughness with vulnerability, its solitude with communion. By positioning tenderness as a radical gesture in an age of digital posturing and hyper-masculine self-improvement, Aronson transforms the landscape into a site of belonging, reflection, and care.