Do we all have doppelgangers? Do we meet people who look a lot like ourselves in normal times?
Montreal photographer François Brunelle has been interested in this issue since 1999 with his "I'm Not a Look-Alike" series, which brings together two unrelated people who are so similar to each other that they may be twins. Since then, he has found hundreds of dosseliers around the world and photographed approximately 250 pairs of minimalist black-and-white portraits in 32 cities.
Brunel's now vast collection attests to the mysterious and strange phenomenon that has captivated humans for centuries, a phenomenon that has originated in supernatural legends and continues to be the subject of many horror movies and sci-fi series. The search for "twin strangers" has also prompted the entire online database to focus on finding similar people through facial recognition software.
It was this enduring charisma that brought Brunel considerable attention to the decades-long project, which also sparked a cutting-point effort focused on finding doubles in Colombia and Spain. At the heart of the series, however, people, regardless of their background, are fundamentally interconnected. Brunel shared.
Brunel
Subjects aren't precise stand-ins — "A pair of perfectly similar characters can be boring," Brunel says — and when they get too close, it's easy to recognize their similarities and differences.
He went on to explain:
Of course, the looks are different. They look a lot like each other, that's all. But, that's what fascinates me. Someone in that world is looking at myself in the mirror and seeing more or less the same thing I see in my own mirror. This brings us to the question: Who am I? Am I seeing in my reflection, or something else that can't be defined, invisible to my eyes, or even my own?