Serpent Still Lifes

Photographer Guido Mocafico takes pictures of snakes, but it wasn’t always so. He was once deathly afraid of them!

The first time I photographed a snake up close, I nearly fainted. I’d always found them terrifying, but also fascinating—an attraction-repulsion I think most people experience when they encounter beautiful animals that creep or crawl. My goal with this series is to explore that intersection of human emotions.

Shown are three colorful bush vipers of the same species.
See a collection of Mocafino’s snake portraits at National Geographic.