SNAPSHOTS Mini Challenge: SNIFF!

smell

Back in the heady days of exploring the wonders of my first computer (a 1986 Commodore Amiga!), I purchased a ridiculous text-only game called “Leather Goddesses of Phobos.” No, it wasn’t some new kind of porn (at least not as far as my pathetic game skills ever revealed). But it did have one feature that made it uniquely attractive: Smell-A-Vision. (OK, it came with a scratch-and-sniff card.) If, for example, in the opening scene in a bar in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, you chose to pick up the piece of pizza off the floor, you were instructed to scratch Number One. Wonder of wonders—it smelled just like pizza! Trust me, you don’t want to know what the other smells were. Let’s just say they were very evocative.

It goes without saying that computers have evolved in ways scarcely conceivable in the late 80’s. For one thing, we’ve come to expect digital games to engage us with strikingly life-like imagery and sounds. For another, they’re now portable, so much smaller and so much more powerful that they’ve all but replaced telephones, clocks, game consoles, maps, books, televisions, movie theatres, banks—and, of course, cameras. Sadly, we haven’t yet found a way to actually record smells.

But advertisers rely heavily on our ability to connect images with fragrance, to see the smells of perfume and coffee and seaside holidays. SNAPSHOTS latest mini-challenge is to discover how we do at capturing pictures of what can’t actually be seen. Send us your most fragrant photos that ask the viewer, “Can you smell it?”

Here are a few examples from my own collection:

The Rules

1. Please submit between 1 and 5 images which visualize fragrance.
2. Please place the title for your collection of smells UNDER your first image.
3. The sub-title should be smell.
4. Do NOT include a description of the fragrance you’ve attempted to capture, not even in a caption. All descriptions will be edited out—make us guess!
5. DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING GROSS (poop, puke, etc). It will also be edited out.
6. Tags must include “photography” and “smell”.

Participation

This challenge is open to anyone with an active Medium account. Not yet a writer for us? Here is a link to our SNAPSHOT information page. Take a look at it, review our submission guidelines, and if you think you’d like to participate then leave a response in the comment section below asking to be added as a writer. One of the editors will get back to you shortly letting you know you’ve been added.

Sherry Kappel Crooked Little Flower Patricia Petersen David Montgomery Hana Leshner Jason Stelzner Erik Smith Jess Hicks Ayesha Talib WissanjiTatiana Reuter Ferreira Daan Spijer Terijo mark-john clifford Elizabeth Helmich Dennett Michael Ramsburg Mal Augustkhalilibrahim Nuraine Sadaf Gail Boenning Ellan Aldryc J. Finley DHBogucki Meg Pesky Pippi Carol Carpenter Mike Stevenson Tien Skye Erika Sauter Stephanie Jackson Rahul Misra Heath Houston J M Jackson miranda deely Sam Griffiths Dusty Craignon sibi cunctis Tracy Aston Clay Rivers Randy Cooper Kathy Jacobs Wild Flower Kerry Kuhn Gutbloom Terrye Turpin Michelle Staffordangus bardvcarolinekDylan Fogle Willow T. Lovelace Kris Keppeler Meg April Fletcher George Yorgo Hoebeke Jane Kim Kenny ChanPaul S Markle Janice Gill Kayla Roste Tamyka Bell Roy Schlegel Annie Littlewolf Tasneem Kagalwalla Gosia Rokicka Jeff Suwak Zev Akhter Louise Peacock Reverend Nigga Daddy Steve B Howard Alex Shar Elisabeth KhanKay Bolden James Finn Eric GriggsSaoirse Chloe Cuthbert Heath Houston J M Jackson miranda deely Sam Griffiths Dusty Craignon sibi cunctis Tracy Aston Clay RiversRandy CooperKathy Jacobs Wild Flower Kerry Kuhn Gutbloom Terrye Turpin Michelle Stafford angus bardvcarolinek Dylan FogleWillow T. Lovelace Kris Keppeler Meg April FletcherGeorge Yorgo Hoebeke Jane Kim Kenny ChanPaul S Markle Janice Gill Kayla Roste Tamyka Bell Roy Schlegel Annie Littlewolf Tasneem Kagalwalla Gosia Rokicka Jeff Suwak Zev Akhter Louise Peacock Reverend Nigga Daddy Steve B Howard Alex Shar Elisabeth Khan Kay BoldenJames Finn Eric Griggs SaoirseChloe Cuthbert Saoirse Nancy E. PittsClay Rivers Lecia Michelle 📃 Harvey James nan fischer Christopher Andrew Gibbons She the Calico Violet DeTorresCottia