Photographer Analyzes Brain Waves To Construct Portraits Of People’s Ideal Selves

Everyone wants to change at least one thing about themselves. No matter how many cheesy songs are written about embracing your imperfections, we all still catch ourselves occasionally thinking about our ideal appearances where all our “flaws” are corrected.

Photographer Scott Chasserot was able to bring a few people’s ideal selves to life through his project “Original Ideal,” which was described as a combination of “portrait photography and neuroscience” on his website. Chasserot took simple and unadorned head shots of his volunteers, then by using an editing software, he made dozens of altered versions based on the “scientifically established canons of beauty.”

By presenting the edited photos to the volunteers while they wore EEG headsets, Chasserot was able to analyze their brain waves and identify which version they preferred the most based on positive neural reactions. The preferred photo was then labeled as their “ideal” appearance.

“What do we find instinctively beautiful in the human face and how does this translate to self-image? What assumptions would we make about another person if we could see their ideal self-image? Original Ideal combines portrait photography and neuroscience to isolate the subjects’ ideal self image, a cerebrally sincere preference obtained by circumventing conscious thought.”

More info: Original Ideal (h/t: theplaidzebra)