Strangers Who Look Like Twins (14 photos)

Do you know what a doppelganger is? It's a person's double. We're not talking about identical twins or triplets, but about people who can live in different countries and be of different cultures. Canadian photographer François Brunelle proved that such coincidences exist—and such doppelgangers, too. It took him 12 years to find people who look very similar.





Friends of Canadian photographer François Brunelle insisted he resembled the famous Mr. Bean. But denials of this led the photographer to an unusual photo project: searching for similar people. Four years later, the photographer has 140 pairs in his arsenal.



At first, acquaintances suggested similar people to him, then he traveled specifically, scrutinizing their faces. And when the project became famous, thousands of messages poured into his website. And although he asked for responses from people who already knew their doubles, the photos came from "lonely" people.

"They asked me to find a double for them." "I leafed through these letters and memorized each face—in case I saw the same one again somewhere," François Brunel said.



Looking through these photos, one might assume that the "doubles" get very close to each other during the photo shoots, and it looks very sweet.



Brunel's doubles are similar only at first glance—and this is one of the photographer's goals: not to look for absolutely identical people, but to see their own personality in each of them. That's why he even called the project "I'm Not Look-Alike," and the black-and-white photography helps achieve this goal:

"The viewer isn't distracted by the color of my subjects' eyes, skin, or hair—and they're not always the same. They see only the essence of the person. You know, it's interesting to watch people when they look into their own eyes. Some of my subjects, meeting in my studio, instantly become friends and continue to communicate," the photographer noted.



"Some people knew each other before me, for example, Marcel Stepanov and Ludovic Mellard. They are executive producers on a Parisian television channel, and people always mistake them for brothers. But it was funny until Marcel's girlfriend kissed him and realized it was Ludovic."

There were other interesting incidents during the project: François once found a double for a meteorologist he knew, who turned out to be his amateur colleague. His two "twins" also went on dates with the same man at different times.



Victoria Stusyak participated in Brunel's project. Her partner was found in Poland, in the form of artist Alexandra Bartosik:

"Alex and I hadn't met before François's workshop," Victoria recalls. "And when we looked at each other, we couldn't figure out how we were alike. Our noses and eyebrows were different!" For example, I thought she looked like my friend, who, like Alex, has Polish roots. But surely, I thought, everyone involved in the "I Am Not Similar" project is just as blind as I am. They don't see what everyone else sees. The idea to photograph us was actually given to François by a friend of his, who knew both Alex and me. So, upon seeing us, the photographer immediately said, "The only thing you have in common is that you're both beautiful." Well, I thought, François probably won't use us. But he set the lighting, we sensed something in each other, and our personalities sparked. I liked the idea itself—it makes you think: you're not the only one like this, and that makes you less selfish."