Ambient imagery

With the success of the ink-drop photos and after feedback from tutors, I decided to continue to take a photographic response to the poems. Although the painted imagery worked, the clean starkness of the negative space doesn't best reflect the very atmospheric feeling of Les Fleurs du Mal- something I could achieve instead with photos. The following is a selection of key words / themes that run through Baudelaire's poems and summarise them well:

 I began taking pictures of different textures and colours predominantly found outside, most selected for pure aesthetics, while some were sought out for their relevant themes- especially those containing or resembling decaying organic matter. The next step was to discerningly select which photos to use, and them layer and combine two or more per image in order to abstract them and create alluring, dream-like colours and textures.

I think that this approach effectively captures the visceral nature of Baudelaire's writing, with the hazy and surreal effects of the combined images capturing mood through the palimpsest-like process of layering. 

The above process was inspired in part by designer Vaughan Oliver, who works with similar ambient textural photo work like the following: 

http://www.hardformat.org/designers/vaughan-oliver-designer/

Oliver is particularly known for his works made for album art, generating images with photos usually inspired by the music it shall come to represent- each example reflects and deepens the sense of the music. My approach for the poetry's themes is the same.