Parfum

'...in a deserted house, some cabinet

Full of the past's acrid odour, dusty and black,
Sometimes one finds an antique phial which remembers,

Whence gushes forth a living soul returned to life.'

Relating to the idea of depicting perfume, I decided to experiment with photography to capture the idea, after cleaning my paint brushes and noticing the paint clouds flourish in the glass of water. An idea I had in mind is exemplified perfectly in the work of Charles Emerson, the following example being the cover art for The Editors' latest album. I feel the image potently holds a sense of emotion and nostalgia, which are the effects Baudelaire hoped to elicit with his repeated sensory descriptions, and so it definitely serves as inspiration.

I set up a glass of water with a plain white background to take my photos, and dropped ink in while taking repeated shots 

I took this series of photos with the intention of likely using the results as components rather than finished pieces in themselves, but I feel they aesthetically hold their own. One particular shot worked out better than I could hoped for by pure chance, with the ink cloud appearing to resemble a heart. I feel it could be used as a minimalist contemporary book cover for The Flowers of Evil.