A woman, a perfume
An original photographic series and a “perfume & woman story,” where each woman tells her story.
to my grandmothers, Blanche and Marguerite.
“A Woman, a Perfume… A Woman, a Perfume” is a series of autobio-photographic stories by women, presented in multiple notes, like the perfume that each wears or has chosen as a source of inspiration.
The gaze of women on themselves.
Photo 1 Eloïse – Photo 2 Maelys – Photo 3 Suz Chevrier
top notes for
the first look
The intense emotion
heart notes for the complexity of emotions,
the chaos of the soul
background notes for
the invisible that becomes visible
Since 2016,
A photographic project based on an original idea by Eric Dubois-Geoffroy (all rights reserved).
The perfume
a smuggler
of imagination
No direct reference to perfume! Perfume is solely the conduit of imagination between each woman and the photographer. Each note, head, heart, base, responds with looks, emotions, attitudes.
Each perfume allows each woman to tell her story more easily in front of the lens, in photographic series of ten to thirty images.
Your perfume according to Proust
In preparation for the photographic session, a “Proustian” questionnaire, specific to this project, is completed before the session. It allows the photographer/woman pair to explore and bring out colors, words, shapes, places, fictional female characters, fragrances and sounds, which on the day of the session, will be all entry points for lighting of each shot.
“But, when from an ancient past nothing remains, after the death of beings, after the destruction of things, alone, more frail but more perennial, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and the flavor still remain for a long time, like souls, to remember, to wait, to hope, on the ruin of everything else, to carry without wavering, on their almost impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory.
Marcel Proust, On the Swann Side
Photo 1 Céline Photo 2 Alice Photo 3 Marie
Your skin flower perfume
Perfume of everyday life, of the party, of the evening, of intimate moments, its fragrances, invisible messages, combine with clothing and underwear, persist on fabrics and mingle with the skin to create so many visual stories of these moments of women.
On the day of the session, each woman chooses the outfits of her choice, according to three ways to wear them: everyday, intimately and extravagantly, echoing the three notes of her perfume.
The everyday first, the private, jeans that she only wears at home for example, an evening dress, a sports outfit, everyday outfits at work.
Then the intimate, lingerie, underwear, but not only that, the intimate according to one’s imagination of the intimate, draperies, duvet, pajamas, “outfit objects”, without outfit.
Finally, the last moment, the craziest, that of extravagances, costumes, disguises, improbable associations, full of humor, comedy, tragedy, a way of bringing back to life a childhood universe, a time when cross-dressing and disguise are the natural extensions of dreams.
The goal is to explore through her different outfits her visual worlds in connection with her perfume. No limit on the number of outfits brought for a session of three hours to a day depending on the duration that each woman determines with the photographer.
A portrait in 3 notes, plural, rich and exciting.
Photo 1 Suz Chevrier Photo 2 Daphnée Photo 3 Blandine
Correspondence between music and perfume? Without a doubt, the correlation is powerful between the sensations induced by a perfume or by music. As Charles Baudelaire perceived it in Les Fleurs du mal.
“Like long echoes that merge from afar
In a dark and deep unity,
Vast as the night and as the light,
Scents, colors and sounds respond to each other.
There are fresh perfumes like the flesh of children,
Soft as oboes, green as meadows,
– And others, corrupt, rich and triumphant,
Having the expansion of infinite things,
Like amber, musk, benzoin and incense,
Who sing of the transports of the spirit and the senses.”
Charles BAUDELAIRE, Correspondence
The
music
of your perfume
Each fragrance unfolds its own melody: top notes, accords, harmony…
Photo 1. Aurore
Photo 2. Karell
Photo 3. Karen
Photo 4. Mélanie
What woman has never felt a strong emotion when recognizing on a piece of clothing, in the hollow of a wardrobe, in the privacy of a bathroom, in the street a perfume which suddenly brought to mind the memory of a moment? particular, of a meeting, of a treat, of a loved one?
Once upon a time,
YOU
In perfume there is everything: the intensity of a look, the persistence of a presence, the expression of femininity, the passing of time, memories of which we first retain the scent. Each woman transmits her gestures, an intention, pure intangible.
And in each of these stories, in three main notes, orchestrated in images, it is told. Around the perfume, associations of ideas are created, memories arise, gestures take shape and the shooting begins.
Each of the notes, head, heart and base, lets the eyes, the emotions, the sensuality burst forth.
Smell is a sense
immediate, sensitive, intimate,
the only one with such a direct connection
to the brain.
On the day of the session, a production according to your notes, in a succession of three stages: the everyday, the intimate and the extravagance, punctuated by your music, your outfits, your colors, your words.
In the end, a series of 12 to 30 photos, driven by what your perfume says about you, your story, your emotions, your imagination.
Photo 1. Morgane
Photo 2. Angélique
to eternize
“Your perfumes, your gaze,
this sweet mirror where I would like to see us again”
Jean-Jacques Goldman, “I would like to see you again” (2001)
Photo 1. Eloîse
Photo 2. Maelys
Photo 3. Julie Impens
Photo 4. Alicia
Mask perfume
or revealing
Photo 1. Julie Impens
Photo 2. Suz
Photo 3. Sandrine
Photo 4. Lydia
Photo 5. Aurore
Photo 6. Mélanie
“Perfume is the halo, the contact zone. It is integrated into the ritual of makeup, clothes, earrings, this whole masquerade of the feminine which is so fascinating for little girls. Being attractive: it’s a destiny which has something magical, mysterious and which nourishes tales.”
Marguerite Baux, 2018
Each photographic series is available as a triptych, 3 inseparable photographs, which form a single plate composing the “photographic perfume” of each woman.
Each series is therefore composed of 3 main notes, subdivided into 3 secondary notes, and so on depending on the complexity of the photo session and its duration.
Photo 1. Margot
Photo 2. Auriane