Beauty in the beast

Far out in the cornflower blue ocean, where the water is deeper than a hundred souls and hides more secrets than any priest, here dwells the mermaid. She hunts the ocean floor, scavenging and preying on whatever she can find, be it dead or alive. She is not the stuff of fairytales. Like a child, she is fierce and fickle. Her mercurial nature will see her kiss you before she tears off your head. She will take what she needs and shows no mercy. Not even to her own. And yet to the human eye, she is a thing of glory and wonder. Her face designed to hold a man’s gaze with her strange beauty. Like a child, she takes her pleasure in the world above the sea. She waits for ships and skiffs, rowboats and liners. Sometimes she will just watch and wave. Sometimes she will bring them to their demise, all the while smiling at her own cleverness. Except for once every 100 years. This is when she must mate or die. For there are no mermen. Not in the deepest depths or the warmest shallows. Not a single one. And so she is compelled to love. Just once in her lifetime. A human man. Photographed exclusively underwater using models and props, with minimal post-production. Photographed by Lizzi Mills in 2019 in Worthing, West Sussex as part of a series from my Final Major Project at the University of Sussex, telling the dark side of the mermaid's tale.