Surreal Smoking Portraits

Meditations by Laurence Demaison, a photographer born in France, is a series of surreal portraits that appear to capture a race of smoking people. Or perhaps there are no people at all and just smoke. Yet some facial features as well as hairstyles can be discerned through the clouds that rise from the collar of each subject's shirt.

Shot entirely in black and white, Meditations by Laurence Demaison is not only dream-like, it is also slightly haunting. Although some people might feel as though the smoke is supposed to represent some kind of internal combustion, the obscurity of such a substance is not so much fiery as it is serene. Hence the title of the photo series. There is a calming effect to the smoke.