‽Bros

I’ve been hanging onto these three images for some time; they seemed to go together, but each time I tried to articulate their connection, there was always one odd image out. Two of them were taken out the window of a car, two of them show men at work, but what was that instinctive common thread that caused me to view all three as belonging to the same family of images? Ultimately, I realized that each image shows a man with something to offer. Some of the offerings are explicit, some more mysterious, but each man confronts us with the promise of something.

Above: Man outside 7-11, Portland, OR

Above: Haircut Sale, Newberg, OR

Above: Tobacconist, Victoria BC, Canada

The Victoria Bug Zoo, in Victoria BC, Canada, houses all manner of exotic insects in a series of candy-colored terrariums.

Dan (below) is one of the zoo’s tour guides. During his shift, he continually rounds the doughnut-shaped duo of rooms comprising the zoo. Guests drift in and out, joining or leaving the tour at their leisure. At each terrarium, Dan pauses to give a speech and to scoop out one of the bugs within, which he then allows brave gusts to hold.

Noting that he is fairly new to the bug zoo, Dan says he has only seen a female mantis destroy a mate once. He describes the spectacle as a steady diminishing, saying that each time he passed the mantis terrarium, less and less of the male remained, until there were only small undesirable bits. Curiously, the male mantis doesn’t resist the female as she attacks him; in fact, it’s thought that in these cases the male offers himself up, in a last-ditch evolutionary mechanism, as supplementary food for the female carrying his eggs.

Dan pauses at a terrarium housing leaf insects of varying sizes. Sliding open the glass door, he blows air inside, asking us to note how the real leaves and the leaf insects sway at once. The effect is uncanny.

Some guests jump at the chance to hold each bug, and others make disgusted comments and shy away.

And some bugs, Dan explains, aren’t for holding.

This white bug (below) was so beautiful that guests were immediately taken with it and began asking questions. One guest asked what it was called. “I like to call her Bianca,” said Dan, before blushing and correcting himself–it was an Orchid Mantis.

http://www.bugzoo.bc.ca/index.htm