Cold Comfort

“I feel what can only be described
As a chill through my every bone,
A gnawing at my sense of home,
An iridescent black and blue.

What you see isn't always what you have
And to hold dear is to never let go.

Yet I still feel well,
Cold comfort to the empty-hearted.
Bound and broken.
Cold comfort, for what was left unspoken
Will have me wishing you were here.

Keep home fires burning,
Spark a yearning for the confines of home.
Keep home fires burning,
Spark a yearning in you to find your way home.

Carried your brittle bones beyond these walls.
All colour bled from banner, hung at half-mast.
Future fire set in stone, ghosts of second past
Feed a licking, harrowing flame,
But you would not be scared away.

What you see isn't always what you have
And to hold dear is to never let go.

Rising up from underneath,
Undercurrent of fiery grief.
I'm cold to the touch.
Ghostly cold is your touch.”

[ Cold Comfort - Autumn ]

Autumn, a Dutch metal band which was the first I had a photographic session with, are going to release their new studio album Cold Comfort on November 4th. The front cover and first single of the album were revealed and, as I love their music a lot, I immediately got inspired by both, in particular as I knew I was going to shoot in an abandoned factory. I kept the song in mind, ready to find the right idea that would relate to it.

I found out that, until some years ago, homeless people used to live inside the warehouse I was going to shoot in, and when they were forced to leave, they abandoned most of their belongings inside the building. While exploring it to look for new ideas, we found where they used to camp, which immediately reminded me of the front cover of the Autumn album. For some reasons, what immediately caught my attention was the flowery cup on the parapet of the stairs; I don’t know, I’m often drawn and somehow touched by such small details, so I decided I wanted to preserve it by taking a photo. Also, the spider webs illuminated by the windows on the back added a wonderful touch, so I set up the manual focus and decided to work with them too. I asked the model to stay back in order to suggest a blurry human presence, and the image was complete.

This is how this photo, which is a bit unusual of me, was born.