Self Portrait as a Hermaphrodite - 2002

Tell Me - 2000

The Portal - 2001



Copyright © Tantra 2002. All images are protected by international copyright laws.

"Self Portrait as a Hermaphrodite" is the product of living by the sea. I tend to gather up artifacts from my walk, and scan them to create new life forms. The skirt comes from some perhaps the end of a bag that was washed up, her arms and ribcage body are leaves. Her heart is a flower, and so art her feet. I scanned these things and a doll, and superimosed a self portrait for the head, which I reduced and superimposed again for the bold penis.

"Tell Me" is centered by a portion of an artpiece I made by making masks, and then fitting more mask material on top of them to create a cross shaped like heads. I put glass and blood and bloodstones in the faces for tears, blood, eyes, and emotion. I laid that image on top of a photo of a bathroom decorated with fishing netting and went from there.

In "The Portal", you see the strange image of a little girl I dressed upon a New Years' day party, in Alabama. I put her image next to a closeup shot of a puffball mushroom, and manipulated it all with photoshop. It's all taken with the digital video camera.

Tantra Bensko is a photographic artist living in Olympia, Washington. Her work is featured in numerous magazines, and is exhibited in galleries internationally.