Soon you will set foot on planet Perfume, the first human to smell its precious elements – and possibly the last. Photographer and longtime contributor Axel Kranz created a series of videos to cover this journey to a far-off planet.
Imagine a distant planet, the final destination of a journey that began many years ago on Earth and led you through the entire solar system, through infinite black voids, by Tannhäuser Gate, and the shoulder of Orion. Your starship circles the orbit of this strange world, gleaming in a multitude of colors, covered in oceans of light, volcanoes erupting into space. Before you unhitch your landing capsule, you take a closer look to prepare yourself and to take in this spectacle of elements and natural forces.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Axel Kranz, @axelberlin
ANIMATION: @sevengreen_picture_works
A world beyond
– the elements of scent.
01. House of Bo: La Mar
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe … Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion … I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain … Time to die.”
—Roy Batty-monologue from Blade Runner
PERFUMERS: Rodrigo Flores-Roux
YEAR: 2021
www.houseofbo.co
02. Elementals: Earth
“This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today.”
—Space Oddity by David Bowie
PERFUMERS: unknown
YEAR: 2018
www.elementalfragrances.com
03. Neandertal: Light
“There was a smell of Time in the air tonight. He smiled and turned the fancy in his mind. There was a thought. What did time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like it sounded like water running in a dark cave and voices crying and dirt dropping down upon hollow box lids, and rain.”
—The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
PERFUMER: Chris Maurice
YEAR: 2018
www.neandertal.co.uk
04. Voyages Imaginaires: La Couleur De La Nuit
“The stars were thinning out; the glare of the Milky Way was dimming into a pale ghost of the glory he had known—and, when he was ready, would know again. He was back, precisely where he wished to be, in the space that men called real.”
—Space Odyssey 2001 by Stanley Kubrick
PERFUMER: Isabelle Doyen
YEAR: 2020
www.voyagesimaginairesparfums.com
05. Escentric Molecules: Molecule 01 + Iris
“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson
PERFUMER: Geza Schön
YEAR: 2021
www.escentric.com
06. Francesca Dell’Oro: Fleurdenya
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
—The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
PERFUMER: Mathieu Nardin
YEAR: 2015
www.francescadelloro.it
If you enjoyed this post you may also like this perfume editorial by the same photographer.