A series by Raphaël Lucas 

.
An ecdysis is the gesture by which an animal, usually an arthropod, removes itself from its exoskeleton to move on to a new stage of its existence.

–
In psychology, this gesture could be assimilated to transcendence: an inward self overtaking. Reaching this state implies to let go one’s usual me to reborn into a transcendented, transmuted self.

.
In order to accomplish this gesture, there is a variety of symbols to adopt and rituals to carry out. Their nature is as arbitraty (at least in appearance) and specific as their presence is essential. Ribbons, masks, hot wax, combos, hoods, shaving, piercing, fabrics or materials, are made and set to prepare the body to the appearance of the transcended self.

.
This gesture of transcendence, at first symbolic and self-centered, finds in the matter and object a support to come to the real. Thus the matter becomes the support to the erotic energy drawn from oneself and the interaction with it operates the trance.

–
Yet it is not masturbation as, as soon as erotism is projected on the matter and on the object, narcisism is overcome, the self becomes an other and its hegemony is dissolved. It is thus not auto- erotism but rather animo-erotism, in the most primary sense of what animism represents: a transcendental approach to identity and reality.

.
With the series Ecdysis, it’s the field of this erotism, both ritual ans spiritual, that I attempt to document. The models I have photographied are actual fetishists and their erotic rituals were captured in sequence with minimal staging, in other words, just the necessary setup for the performance of each rituals. Certain models (Goma and Vincent) have a very polymorphic fetishism, which is why I’ve photographied them in various of their riuals. Besides, Jon John ritual’s Love On Me is meant to be a public performance. Also, in one of the series, Goma is wearing a hood by Charlie le Mindu, made for a show in april 2016 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Altough not a part of the original imago of the inflatable doll, Goma appropriated the hood and added it to the performance of his erotic ritual after trying it.

–
Paris, June 2016

http://www.raphael-lucas.net

–