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Illusion of the Week: The Look-Alike Project

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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Courtesy of Francisco Costela

When I learned about photographer François Brunelle’s “Look-Alike” project, I thought immediately of my graduate student Francisco Costela and his buddy Josh Corrigan. Fran and Josh met as research trainees at the Barrow Neurological Institute and became fast friends. They have no relation (Fran is a Spaniard and Josh is an American), but the similarities are uncanny: even their glasses are identical (entirely coincidental, Fran tells me). I encouraged Fran to contact Brunelle and was tickled to learn that the photographer was not only excited to feature the two of them in his Look-Alike project (an exhibit and book are in the works), but that Fran and Josh had also been selected to participate in an Inside Edition TV special about Brunelle’s look-alikes. Check out the videos to see Fran and Josh, and other look-alike couples, in action.

Susana Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is author of the Prisma Prize–winning Sleights of Mind, along with Stephen Macknik and Sandra Blakeslee, and of Champions of Illusion, along with Stephen Macknik.

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