There is More to It Than That Meets The Eye

These poor creatures are often misunderstood but putting aside our fears if we observe them we find a certain grace and beauty in them. Photographer Mark Laita wanted to show this beauty to the world. He was writing a book ‘Serpentine’ and so he set out to capture this beauty for the book “Snakes”.

In the book Mark has used a black back-ground to show the beauty of the snakes. Much to the interest of the snake lovers and herpetologists the author wants the work to be seen as a piece of art. “My intention was to explore color, shape and movement, using snakes as a subject, but of course herpetologists will probably enjoy these photographs as well,” he told Wired.

One of the snake’s to be shown in the book was the black mamba which is highly aggressive and the deadliest snake of the African continent. Although all the necessary precautions were taken but an accident occurred during the shoot. The serpent became instigated and bit the photographers’s leg.

Although the snake did not have its venom glands removed and was extremely deadly but still Laita did not go to the hospital for anti-venom and decided to carry on his task. Luckily the serpent had not injected his venom inside the body or maybe it had been washed out due to the heavy bleeding. So although the wound hurt a lot Mark was out of danger. “It hurt like hell that night.” Laita recalled. “It was like being stuck with a couple of push pins.”

Later going through the pictures Mark was glad to see that he had been able to get a perfect shot of the moment when the snake bit him. Though most people called it a publicity stunt but Laita insisted that this was not the case. “The whole thing is stupid, and it makes me look like a reckless jackass, which I’m not.”

Its very rare to survive from the Black Mamba bites without treatment and Laita’s case did make a great story.

Let’s take a look at some of the amazing images from the book.