Formicophilia by Lydia Whitmore

Giant black insect replicas and a model adorned in fetish gear both playing starring roles in a photo series titled Formicophilia by Lydia Whitmore. It receives a Best in Book award in CR’s Photography Annual 2018

Lydia Whitmore’s work as a photographer typically sees her doing still life for fashion and food brands ranging from Nike to Nespresso, as well as editorial for magazines such as Esquire and GQ. Her editorial project for indie magazine Suspira, however, errs on the slightly more obscure side, with giant black insect replicas and a model adorned in fetish gear both playing starring roles.

Examining horror as a genre through a female lens, Suspira launched earlier this year with its Monster issue, which included a feature on the sexual representation of the monster, and an advice piece discussing coping strategies for battling your inner demons.

Whitmore decided to get out of her visual comfort zone, and approached the team behind the magazine to do a shoot for its upcoming second issue on fetish, along with her friend and artist Nicky Deeley. “It’s good to do something that’s really quite far away from what I do commercially for a living. It’s not even still life, it’s just quite out there,” she says.