Relative path to png file in parent directory not working

Question

HTML file location and mess.png file location in parent directory

I am trying to link an image to my HTML project using the relative path from the HTML file. The HTML file is in a directory that is the child of the directory that the png file is in. My understanding is that src="../mess.png" should work because I'm moving to the parent directory which contains the image file. However this has not worked and I can't figure out why.

here is an image of the code I am using

I understand it's best practice to have the image in the same directory as the HTML file, or in a folder within the directory of the HTML file.