Cape Verdean make-up artist Leonardo Oliveira put the finishing touches to a singer’s look at a shoot for a music video, open and comfortable about being a gay man in Africa.

The archipelago off the coast of west Africa is an island of tolerance in a continent where anti-LGBTQ+ laws have become increasingly repressive.

Perfectly made up himself and wearing shorts and a top baring his shoulders, Leo, as he is known, works among the technicians and musicians without fear of being insulted, attacked or reported and sent to prison.