The making of Femme Fatale

I was to design a new cover for The Velvet Underground's possible new album. I chose all the songs and title. I've used a scanner and varied techniques.

This was a fun job.

After much trial and error, many cups of tea, and far more attempts than you see here, finally i found something to work with. And it worked. Much of the album is about fatal love and deep addiction. Passionate and vulnerable. I thought of it as appropriate to photograph myself dying, or dead, or associated with death, or pain drawn from love, or the death of a love yet still portraying femininity and acceptance. A quietness. I think as the day grew thin, so too did the petals from the rose which surprised me with this beautifully weathered and tired look. Perfect. It suited the feelings I think she would have been feeling. And she's vomitting petals. Like the life of her has been squeezed out of her. The colour of love and passion and heat. The colour of blood. The colour of a woman's heart. Her needs and wants. Lust. The colour of her life and the depth of her belonging. Spewing out of her lifeless lips. Then on the reverse side you have her before the turmoil. Just a calm, beautiful strong flower. Capturing the light, fresh, crisp, curvaceous, soft, woman. And I just love the flickering of light from the scanner. Like a life flickering. Eyelids opening and closing. Or the end of a black and white movie.