Olfactory Photography

Photography relies very heavily on visual stimulation. It conveys a mood and, if it’s good, arouses emotion through the sense of Sight.

But visual stimulation can’t tell the whole story. James Graham once suggested (see History Lesson - Part II post) that he could better convey the message of his nude photographs by downloading a music track and listening to it whilst studying the image. I think this is a brilliant idea. The combination of two of the senses, Sight and Sound, would dramatically increase the chances of understanding what the artist is trying to convey. Music evokes a mood, and you can thus better understand what James was feeling when he took that photograph. You can really understand the “why” of the Art.

But wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could add a third sense – Smell?
To me, this is just as important as Sight. After all, when you are remembering a past event, particularly your childhood, you remember the visual image of course, but you remember the smell too.

Coming across an unexpected aroma can instantly transport you back to your favourite childhood memory. My father was a wholesale newsagent, and to this day, when I open a Sunday newspaper, the aroma of the paper, the newsprint, the ink, and the heavy china clay smell of the glossy Sunday supplement, will instantly transport me back to a snapshot vision of a Sunday morning, 4 a.m., working with him delivering newspapers to retailers, as dawn rose. Father and daughter time, just for us. I was so happy. The snapshot in my mind becomes a vivid memory because of the emotions generated by smell.

Everyone has their own personal scent. My middle son always smells of strawberries and cream. If I ever do smell real strawberries, I instantly conjure up a mental image of him, and he’s here with me. His personality is very strawberries and cream too....sweet, comforting, colourful, a visual feast.

Of course, it's not polite to talk about it, but smell is ever present in a shoot. After all, you judge a person's personality partially by how they smell. A photographer would remember a model by her looks, how she talks, her personality and her scent. Not that I make a habit of sniffing models, mind you (I’m not some weird pervy photography assistant, despite what you may think of me!) However I do tend to remember people by smell, as well as how they look. Maybe this is because I’m mostly deaf. Aroma has become much more important to me since I lost my hearing, although I only have 50% of my olfactory senses nowadays too.

Scent is emotion, pure and simple.
Nothing else conveys feeling quite like it.
The intense pong of life.

So all we need to do now is to be able to harness this sense and link it to a photograph. I was reading recently that the technology to do this is already under development. Smells can be downloaded over the internet, and channelled through a special device next to your computer monitor, to you can smell an image as well as visualise it. Eventually the technology will be inside your computer monitor. It's called Digital Scent Technology or "Smell-O-Vision"

It’s the fragrance of the future, folks.

Scratch ‘n’ sniff nudes.

Soon you’ll be able to sniff me nude as well as look at me.
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Edit: I have removed my image from this post, after it was mocked by another blogger. I don't mind someone criticising my writing, especially on a daft post like this (which was merely written to amuse), but I do object to mocking. It's not nice and it's not clever.
Being British, I really do abhor bad manners.