In 2016, following the sudden loss of a childhood friend, photographer Dean Majd began documenting the interior lives of a tight-knit circle of young men in New York. These were the denizens of the city’s nightlife, skate, and graffiti scenes—communities often defined by a protective, almost hermetic insularity. Over the next decade, Majd used point-and-shoot cameras to capture the friction between their public personas and their private vulnerabilities, resulting in a body of work titled *Hard Feelings*.
The images, many shot under the harsh flash of nighttime photography, oscillate between scenes of chaotic revelry and the quiet, heavy stillness of grief. Majd’s lens does not merely observe; it participates in a long-arc reckoning with masculinity. By focusing on the "ruptures" within his own social group, he explores how trauma and loyalty shape the bonds between men. The work avoids the tropes of grit for grit’s sake, opting instead for a meditation on the possibility of healing within a culture that often demands emotional stoicism.
Recently showcased at Baxter St in New York and included in MoMA PS1’s *Greater New York*, the project has evolved from a personal archive into a significant cultural document. Majd describes the process as a complex ethical navigation, balancing the intimacy of friendship with the archival impulse. Drawing inspiration from sources as disparate as John Cassavetes’ films and the hip-hop collective Dipset, *Hard Feelings* offers a rare, unvarnished look at the mythmaking and survival strategies inherent in modern male camaraderie.
With reporting from Aperture.
Source · Aperture
