I want to tell you about the time I did a photoshoot with my friend Shane Velasquez and his girlfriend Cherry Delight. She picked me for this shoot because I had a striking resemblance to one of her friends. A doppelganger. And she wanted twin minions; kneeled alongside her lap with intricate matching costumes, although they were not much clothing. It was a Satanic photoshoot.
I agreed to do the shoot though I did feel a twinge of moral concern. I was interested in the experience, it sounded dark and different. I've always have felt a pulsating lure towards those which are unusual. Though I had not been to church in over a decade, and have never identified that connection I was suppose to feel being raised Christian, I still had the fear of God in me. I justified this as like a Renaissance painting, a representation of the devil like the great cathedrals I saw in France when I was twelve. I love those intense images of Lucifer devouring children. I figured that God knows that I don't idolize Satan and that it's just for art.
When I met my partner in the empty studio space, I didn't see the spitting image like I had hoped. Oh well, but we did share some feature. My doppelganger is still at large. It kinda makes one think about how one perceives his or herself, compared to how others view you. Nevertheless, she was fun and friendly enough.
It took longer to get everything set up to shoot. Cherry put a lot of details into costuming, and did not have an assistant. Fresh white roses strung and tied around our necks like garland, tight strung black waist clinchers and painted pink nipples, tips and toes. Nothing more except make up.
Cherry was dressed almost like a fetish latex Lucifer. Her face was covered in a black sheep like horned gas mask, a coyote's skull in a bed of blood dripped rose petals. Long black spiky gloves, pentagram of blood on her chest, breasts bloodied, ready for feeding. Shane first had us twins pose together against the wall. Weirdest prom date photos ever.
The altar was ready. My older Christian sister texted me but I told her I'd have to get back to her later. I kneeled to the left side and she to the right. We began shooting. The experience made me realize how straight I really am, because I got absolutely no joy out of it. I did it for the art. We must not have had much time left in the rental room because not too long after, I heard a knock on the door...
Lelio Orsi
I will never forget the look on those children's faces. They came in so innocent, had a concerned look like they realized they interrupted something, then a look of horror once it registered what was interrupted. The parents were oblivious at first, yapping at one another "why hasn't their dance class started?" then fell silent while one little Jewish boy closed the door before the outburst of protest erupted. Shane just kept shooting.
There are no pictures online to show. Sometimes the best photos are. I wonder what those children thought about when they laid in bed that night.
