Jonas Leriche Reexamines What We Call Natural, Beautiful, and Rare

Symbols of extravagance such as honey and diamonds, even rare butterflies and mythic characters are turned deeply foreboding using grotesque makeup and props.
His use of the human form as a canvas inspires the viewer to understand these symbols in a human context.
What do we see as beautiful? What does it require to take something sweet and make it sinister?

Leriche uses his photography to ask big questions, like “ON THE VERGE OF EXCTINCTION,” where in three acts he turns the human form into a bee — sticky and skull-like— and faces his audience with the possibility of the species’ annihilation.
In his “FREEDOMINATION” Leriche places an octopus on his model’s head, painted with the United States flag — its tentacles reaching out and spreading– a chilling symbol of the duplicity inherent in American Freedom, made stronger in its sister-image “ALIENATION,” a closed octopus obscuring the head of the model.
Leriche’s photography is haunting, captivating, and thought-provoking.

Take a look at his collection here.