Mantis

Some out takes from my recent ‘Mantis’ shoot, which illustrates my poem by the same name about a praying mantis. Such a funny shoot! My very platonic friend Ryan agreed to help me recreate the mating/killing rituals on the praying mantis by posing for this shot. He was very surprised to see how the whole process worked: that it was so quick, somewhat uncomfortable (holding me up against the rock while I thrashed about) and incredibly weird! But I was quite happy with how it all turned out.

Ultimately, I ended up combining an image with good hand positions with an image that had a lot of motion blur in the face. I felt that some of the others seemed too obvious in terms of their sexuality. By using one with motion blur it would make what was happening a little bit more confusing- is this pleasure or pain? Is she in the throws of passion or about to consume her lover?

The final product: