Oriental Visions: The Scent of Fabric, oriental costumes — Visual Narratives
Exhibition from 7 November 2026
What a pleasure to open this new cycle with you! As is becoming the tradition of this blog, we begin this cycle with the Visual Narratives. It is an introduction designed to be accessible to everyone, an artistic parenthesis where I set explicit nudity aside to concentrate on atmosphere, set and pure emotion. Make yourself comfortable, the journey starts here.
Oriental Visions: The Scent of Fabric |
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Oriental costumes: gestures take shape
A saffron-yellow veil held between two hands, jewellery catching the light, a face turned upwards. Oriental costumes immediately give the image a direction. I love this theme for the way it brings together beautiful clothes and beautiful poses. With ‘Oriental Visions: The Scent of Fabric’, I welcome you to the Visual Narratives room, with 89 photographs that give gesture and texture room to speak.
In this first image, the arms open wide and the fabric forms a curve behind the body. Small ornaments cover the silver-coloured top, while delicate chains hang across the hips. Yellow fills almost the entire frame, with brown shadows adding depth. Her gaze follows her raised hand. I like the way a pose can extend a costume right to the fingertips.
Further on, red changes the atmosphere. A woman kneels with one arm above her head and her eyes lowered. The fabric runs down her arm and gathers on the floor. A gold-coloured belt marks her waist, while an opening reveals her thigh. The light picks out her shoulder and the folds of the fabric. Everything comes together along the line from hand to knee, surrounded by the weight of the drapery.
That is another thing I enjoy about oriental costumes: they sit so well alongside an imagined world of antiquity. A piece of jewellery, a pose in profile or a figure between two columns is enough to suggest that connection. Throughout the series, arches, decorated walls and vaulted passages give the women an almost theatrical presence. I see them as characters, each photograph revealing a fragment of a story. The imagination can move freely between these buildings and the clothes.
The images then move into deep blues, greens and violet light. Some portraits bring us closer to necklaces and headdresses. Others give more space to the body, reclining or standing, with hands holding a veil or resting near the face. The light picks out a jewel, then leaves part of the figure in shadow. I enjoy moving from these close details to a wider scene without losing the presence of the woman within it.
Looking at this collection, I can almost smell spices, cinnamon and argan oil. That sensation accompanies the warm colours and the fabrics. It comes from what the photographs suggest to me: warmth, a texture you might want to touch, air filled with fragrance. This very personal impression made me want to speak of the scent of fabric. An image can awaken more than sight.
Sensuality comes through precise gestures here. A wrist bends, a shoulder is revealed, a chin lifts. The costume follows these movements and gives the body lines to work with. Even in the compositions filled with jewellery or elaborate settings, I return to the face and hands. They give each woman her own way of inhabiting the image, with confidence or softness expressed through the pose.
I would like you to take time to notice these differences from one photograph to the next. The saffron veil and the red drapery already show two very different ways of bringing this theme to life. The 89 images in ‘Oriental Visions: The Scent of Fabric’ continue this meeting of oriental costumes, poses and architecture. I welcome you to the Visual Narratives room, to share a theme I always enjoy returning to.
To see this week’s exhibitions or all of my work, here are the options:
Free with an account. | €150 · 3 months, one-off payment. Or €55/month, minimum 3 months. Reserve, current exhibitions and Library included. |
I hope this first stop appealed to you. We are only just beginning. Next week, the mood will change radically. I look forward to meeting you to discover the Free Women series, where we will explore a much more graphic, bold and uninhibited aesthetic. Until then, take care!
Yohann
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