François brunel travel notes. I'm not like: the wonderful world of François Brunel's twins. My job is to create stories through images. My camera and Photoshop are my biggest allies

03/19/2013 | CreativingSister | 13,647

Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle has been searching for "" for several years. This photo project is called “I’m not look-alike”.

It already features 140 pairs of "twins" who are not even members of the same family. Brunel's twins are not actually absolute copies of each other. After all, the project is called "I am not like".

Black-and-white photographs amazingly emphasize both the incredible similarity of people and the individuality of their personality. The photographer believes that it is precisely the technique of black and white photography that allows you to most accurately focus on the essence of a person, and not be distracted by the analysis of the accuracy of the coincidence of shades of hair, eye skin, etc. François Brunel says that it is very interesting to observe the reaction of a person who first meets his double. However, outward resemblance most often attracts people to each other - many of his "models" became friends, barely looking at each other, and continue to maintain constant communication.

See more issues on the topic -,,.

Each of the nearly seven billion people living on our planet today is completely unique. This uniqueness is especially noticeable from a chemical and biological point of view - each has its own hair color and eye color, fingerprints, its own unique structure of the vascular and nervous systems ... This list can be continued indefinitely. But if you do not go into the details of the chemical structure of the body, but cast only a superficial glance at the exterior, it turns out that there are actually a lot of people who are extremely similar to each other. Canadian photographer François Brunel has been looking for such "doubles" for several years. This photo project is called “I Am Not Like,” and it already features 140 pairs of “twins” who are not even members of the same family.

(16 photos total)

1. At first, François Brunel found "material" for his project on the recommendations of his acquaintances, but soon the work captured him so much that he began to undertake special travels, during which he looked for similar people. And when the project gained sufficient popularity, a lot of letters began to arrive on the photographer's website. Many even turned to him with a request to find a double for them.

2. Brunel's twins are not really absolute copies of each other. After all, the project is called “I’m not look-alike”. Black-and-white photographs amazingly emphasize both the incredible similarity of people and the individuality of their personality. The photographer believes that it is precisely the technique of black and white photography that allows you to most accurately focus on the essence of a person, and not be distracted by the analysis of the accuracy of the coincidence of shades of hair, eye skin, etc. François Brunel says that it is very interesting to observe the reaction of a person who first meets his double. However, outward resemblance most often attracts people to each other - many of his "models" became friends, barely looking at each other, and continue to maintain constant communication.

3. Two friends of one of the photographer's daughters. Canadians Nina Sai and Anna Rubin are both artists and celebrate their birthday on the same day. Their similarities are so striking that they even thought they were separated twins, and their parents had to convince them otherwise.

4. Marcel Stepanov and Ludovic Mellard got to know each other before participating in the project. They work as executive producers on one of the Parisian TV channels, and are constantly at the center of the amusing confusion. True, when Marcel's girlfriend mistakenly kissed Louis, it turned out awkward. And another pair of "twins" who were dating the same man, albeit at different times, took part in the project.

5. Edith Prefontaine and Stephanie Trembly, inviting François to their place, even dressed the same to further enhance their resemblance to each other.

7. Victoria's double Stusyak was found in Poland. It was the artist Alexandra Bartosik. True, they themselves believe that they are not alike at all. François did not choose this pair himself - the idea to remove Victoria and Alexandra was given to him by one of his friends, who personally knew both of them. François also believes that the similarity between them is very conditional, and is limited to the fact that they are both beautiful women Polish origin. But the couple was still included in the project. Victoria Stusyak says that she really liked the idea of finding a "double", which clearly shows that each of us is simply physically not the only one in the world. This helps to curb your own selfishness well.

Do you believe that each of us has a double? But the photographer François Brunel not only believes, but shows the twins to the world.

For several years he has been working on the project I "m not a look-alike, which means" I do not look like. "You will be surprised, but in his photographs they are not twins or even relatives. They are strangers. a friend of the people.His collection has already collected more than two hundred portraits.By the way, an application for participation in his project can be submitted on his personal website.

The photographer notes that, surprisingly, the doubles very quickly find language with each other, and sometimes they even have something in common in their biography. So, two girls during a photo shoot found out that they were dating the same guy. Brunel's works are so warm, so it's hard to imagine that these people can live in different cities or corners of the planet.

But still, the idea of the project I "m not a look-alike is not to demonstrate the similarity of two different people, as you might think, but to show that, despite all the similarities, this is absolutely different people, each has its own character and its own life. And of course, this is a great opportunity to allow the project participants to look at themselves in a new way, from the outside. After all, the thought that your double is walking somewhere makes you look at yourself and your life from a completely different angle.

Tegan Lucas, a graduate student at the University of Adelaide School of Medicine, conducted a study based on a database of face and body parameters of over 4,000 people combined with mathematical calculations. It was she who came up with this almost incredible figure: one chance in a trillion.

But if there is even the slightest chance, it will fall out for someone, right? Factrum found a whole selection of such matches! For example…

1. The girl met her double in college in Germany

Student Ciara Murphy from Ireland moved to Germany to study, but least of all she expected to meet her double there. The girl became suspicious when they began to constantly ask her if she had a sister who had come with her together.

The same question was asked to the unsuspecting Cordelia Roberts from the UK, who also moved to Germany to study. In the end, the girls accidentally collided and realized that those around them mistook them for twins. Ciara and Cordelia are now friends and are still referred to as "twins" in college.

2. The girl who decided to find a double on the Internet

Irish presenter Neve Gini, 26, launched a 28-day project called Stranger Gemini to find the person who most resembles herself. Neave was amazed to find a twin girl living just an hour's drive from her!

Neave found Karen Branigan in April 2015 when her campaign in social networks gained popularity. The couple met and took a photo.

Moreover, after some time, Neave found another girl from Italy, even closer to her in appearance. Neve flew to Genoa to meet her doppelganger, the blue-eyed brunette Louise.

3. The girl accidentally found her double via Instagram

Amanda Fisher and Meredith Pond are not twins, but the similarities between them are striking!

Fisher's friend pointed her to a photo of another girl on Instagram who looked exactly like Amanda. Our heroine was unable to contact the doppelganger, and then she published both photos of herself and the doppelganger on Imgur, asking users to help in the search.

Many simply did not believe that there were two in the photographs. different people until one user accidentally recognized his friend, 22-year-old Meredith Pond from Indiana, in the doppelganger. He prompted Amanda to Meredith's Facebook page, after which the girls were finally able to meet and exchange photos.

4. The man met his double on the plane

The bearded man met his double when he accidentally sat down in his place. Neil Douglas was shocked to meet Robert Stirling on a flight from London to Galway. Instead of asking him to move over, the 32-year-old photographer took a selfie and shared the photo on social media.

The stranger turned out to be incredibly similar: the same thick red beard and mustache, smile and hairstyle. Both men wore black shirts, and later, upon learning that they were checking into the same Irish hotel, the doubles decided to celebrate their acquaintance with a beer in a nearby bar.

5. Photographer for 12 years photographing double strangers

Canadian François Brunel became so interested in the phenomenon of doubles that for 12 years he deliberately looked for people with almost identical features. He created the photo project I Am Not Alike, a photo exhibition of the unrelated “twins” he met all over the world.

Brunel himself has been compared to the famous comedian Rowan Atkinson, who played Mr. Bean.

6. Site of doubles

These girls live thousands of kilometers apart. Jennifer, 33, from Texas, and Amberg, 23, from North Carolina, met five minutes after signing up for the Twin Strangers website, which helps people find their double from around the world.

What language is understandable to all Slavs?

What mistake almost everyone makes when using a table knife?

Why did women start wearing bras?

Your ton of gold personally floats in the oceans

So much gold is dissolved in the world's oceans that if we managed to get it, then every person on Earth would get a whole ton. But the problem is precisely that any method of mining this gold known to us is more expensive than gold itself. There is no technology yet to do it quickly and cheaply, so if you are an engineer or an inventor, this is a worthy challenge! By the way, find out who owns 11% of all gold in the world.

Who are the "children of the moon"?

Cat claw removal is toe amputation

What's the rarest eye / hair color combination in the world?

What is a poverty trap?

Sociologists call a “poverty trap” a situation when children growing up in poverty cannot, for this reason, receive a decent education, a well-paid profession and a decent pension, and are forced to remain on a social day all their lives. According to the latest data from Rosstat, in Russia the share of children from low-income families is 26% of the total: all of them are at risk of falling into the "poverty trap."

Externally similar people to each other are not uncommon, everyone came across someone similar to themselves, sometimes more than once. But doubles are a rarer phenomenon. But, as it turned out, finding your copy is not so difficult. In any case, the French photographer François Brunel proves this in practice, not for the first year taking joint photographs of doubles.

Actually, Brunel himself is like two peas in a pod similar to the famous comedian Rowan Atkinson, the very Mr. Bean. Familiar and unfamiliar people overwhelmed Brunel with this "news" year after year.

At first he laughed it off, but one day he thought, and decided to make an unusual photo project out of this.

Since then, François Brunel travels and peers into people's faces, and also accepts applications for participation in the project through his website. As a result, today in his collection there are almost one and a half hundred doubles. Moreover, these are not externally exact copies of famous people, but simple, but very similar people who can be photographed together, even if they have not met before.

By the way, as Brunel noted, unfamiliar doubles usually instantly find a common language, common interests and even, at times, commonality in biography (for example, two girls found out that they had met the same man at different times).

François Brunel called his project I’m not look alike, “I don’t look alike,” and this has a great meaning. The fact is that in fact, twins can only be confused one by one. They are really very similar, but if you photograph them together, you can see how many differences there are between them. This is what became the idea of the whole project - to show that the twins are not clones of each other, but different people with their own characters, habits and destinies.

However, there are, to some extent, exceptions: for example, among Brunel's photographs there is a photograph of Edith Prefontaine and Stephanie Trembly. They are not sisters, and did not even know each other, but still they are similar to each other, like twins. Moreover, both girls, without saying a word, came to Brunel's workshop almost identically dressed and wearing glasses of the same shape!

Still, the main value of the project is not to show the similarities and differences of people. And in the fact that people themselves look at themselves in a new way: after all, the realization that somewhere your "copy" is walking makes you look at yourself from the outside. And now this is, perhaps, more important than any perception of art.

It might be helpful to read: