Intimate and compassionate, the photographs from Zun Lee’s “Father Figure: Exploring Alternate Notions of Black Fatherhood” fight the stereotype of the absent black father, despite Lee having learned of his own biological father — a black man — who left his mother while she was pregnant with Lee. Instead Lee, after years of navigating the road to forgiveness, decided to explore black fatherhood and hold a mirror up to the complexities of fatherhood.

His goal is to show an everyday, ordinary love between children and fathers. The kind of moments that get lost in the shuffle of media caricatures.

“On either side it’s stereotypical,” Mr. Lee said. “On one side it’s the Jerry Springer, Maury Povich stuff about irresponsible dads who run away from their baby mama and don’t take responsibility. On the other hand of the discourse, you have Dr. Cliff Huxtable, the über-dad. In the media, there is very little in the middle, of the everyday dad who may not be perfect, he may be struggling, but he’s present in their child’s life.”