Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Surrealistic Scent

Perfume, magazines, Salvador Dali and photography. What do all of these have in common? Paul Graves!

Over here at Savoir Faire we consider perfumery an art. No, not the mass produced and marketed tripe that is on the market these days, but the fragrances of some of the legendary names of perfume like Guerlain, Creed and Caron. Making a great perfume is art in itself! That is also to be said of the bottle the ‘juice’ is contained in and the overall concept of the fragrance.

Photographer Paul Graves is known for his sense of stylistic whimsy and clever allusions. Recently, he created a beautiful editorial for Elle France "starring" several iconic perfumes in surrealist settings reminiscent of Salvador Dalí's Dalí Atomica photography series.

The result has been a wonderful editorial in bold singular colors with black used as a contrast.
Graves chose surreal settings, mixed techniques such as sculpture and photography melded together to present a surrealist overview of something that most of us take for granted.

Bottles such as Guerlain’s iconic bee or Dior’s J’adore are mixed with dripping spoons of coloured material and fur to create a bold and visual statement that begs us to look at these items in a different light.


17 comments:

  1. Beautiful Graphics! I love fragrances too. I remember reading Carrie Donovan's obituary several years ago, and one of the things that resonated with me, was it said she always smelled so good. What a nice way to be remembered.

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  2. These photographs are a lot of fun - portraits, really. I'm still unabashedly influenced by good packaging. My grandmother used 4711, with its distinctive bottle and the timeless aqua and gold label, and I always keep some 4711 around to remember.

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  3. I adore fragrance and fun photography and here you have captured both!

    xx Cat brideblu

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  4. this is beautiful - great pictures! Great graphics. Fragrances are more than just the scent.

    cello xox

    cello-in.blogspot.com

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  5. Stunningly Surreal . . .
    beautiful post, David !

    jjj

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  6. Beautiful surrealism! Love Dior fragances..my mom has like three of them haha..the pictures are stunning!

    xx
    Andy
    The Black Label

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  7. Hi!
    Great photos and goog post!
    A big hug!

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  8. Catherine, mmm I think that is the way I would like to be remembered!

    Mark, Funny you should mention 4711 as both my grandmothers used it and I do too. The packaging and blue and gold label are classics!

    I am glad that all enjoyed these photos. To me they were totally unexpected!

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  9. Very clever images...so much better than a naked Marc Jacobs.

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  10. What a wonderful series - I love it!! Love this kind of creative work that urges us to see things in a new way!

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  11. Those images are incredible, bold and captivating!!! I love this. Wonderful post!
    Nancy xo

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  12. I knew nothing about all this. See how peasant I am. It is great to have you around.
    And by the way, thanks for your kind comments in my blog. I really appreciate them, but if necessary by hard too, I will appreciate it equally coming from you.

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  13. such fab pictures...art&perfumes =nice <3
    tnx for all your sweet comments on my blog...kissssssessss...
    gabri

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  14. do u know my fb page?

    http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/STYLETHE-CITY/195386193832937

    maiby u wiil like to join...looks+views from all over the world...hope to see u there to...:);)
    bye <3

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  15. v.clever work! Love the colour for J'adore, such a clean yellow. Fab stuff

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  16. These are too fab! I'm a proud perfume snob too!:)

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  17. Wow- these are amazing- I am a total perfume snob and gone are the teenage days of wearing body shop.
    Dior is my favorite.
    On another note have your read Perfume: The Story of a murder?
    One of my all time favorite books-

    http://ladyofthearts.blogspot.com/2011/01/perfume-story-of-murder.html

    Lovely to find your blog.

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