Genetic portraits

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(Photo courtesy Ulric Collette)

By Sarah B. Weir, Shine Blogger | Parenting – 19 hours ago

Ulric Collette, 31, started his series of merged family portraits by accident. The self-taught photographer was trying to age an image of his 7-year-old son’s face by merging it with his own in Photoshop, and noticed how interesting the two faces looked spliced together. It inspired him to create seamless images showing the resemblance between brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, and children. He calls them "genetic portraits."

The juxtapositions of family members’ features enhance the physical similarities that cross generations — similarities that we often recognize but can’t pinpoint precisely. He’s made dozens of portraits over five years, some of which have been featured on Yahoo Shine before. But one of his most recent pictures might be the most striking of all: his 13-year-old daughter Ismaelle’s face paired with his 62-year-old mother Ginette’s. While separated by five decades, the two look eerily identical. It’s almost like looking into a crystal ball and seeing Ismaelle’s face as a mature woman.

“I talked with a genetics expert this summer and she had the theory that grandchildren will look much more like their grandmother on the father’s side of the family,” the artist tells Yahoo Shine. “I wanted to try it out, and the results are pretty amazing!” He adds that both his daughter and his mom love the portrait.

Collette, who is based in Quebec City, Canada, says he’d like to follow up with some of his early subjects and see how their visual genetic similarities change as they age. He hopes to eventually turn the series into a book.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/the-grandmother-granddaughter-mini-me-portrait-you-must-see-220040587.html







More: http://genetic.ulriccollette.com/

[panader0]

1. I think I saw the person in the third picture

late one night on Bourbon Street.