SMELLS LIKE HEARTBREAK

When there is breakup, there is pain. Afterwards we can build a new relationship as friends or at least as acquaintances. But most of us don't: We hide, ghost or ignore. Not because it is the adult thing to do but because we can't help it. Years later there is not much left of what was once our world. So here it what remains: The smell of our loved ones and their last text.

This photographic series explores the sensory remnants of lost relationships - specifically, the olfactory memories and final textual exchanges that persist long after physical presence has ended. Through carefully composed still life images and evocative visual metaphors, the work examines how these fragments become powerful repositories of emotion and memory.

Each photograph pairs visual representations of scent (personal items, clothing, spaces) with excerpted text messages, creating a dialogue between these different modes of remembering. The images consider how these sensory artifacts can simultaneously comfort and haunt us, becoming both cherished mementos and painful reminders of what has been lost.

The series questions why we sometimes choose distance over new forms of connection after romantic relationships end, and how we process grief through the physical and digital traces left behind. By making visible these intimate remnants, the work invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences of heartbreak and the particular objects and messages that have carried emotional significance in its aftermath.