Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle spent 12 years tracking down real life Doppelgängers — two individuals who are not related but could pass for identical twins — and photographing them. He calls his project “I’m Not a Look-Alike,” and it’s starting to get some well-deserved attention.
Article with more pictures: https://www.chasejarvis.com/blog/me-myself-and-i-francois-brunelle-and-his-doppelganger-project-find-your-look-alike/
Photograph website: http://www.francoisbrunelle.com/webn/e-project.html
- Makes you wonder how many people got jailed for a crime they didn’t commit before the widespread use of fingerprints and DNA just because they resembled someone else. - People still do. - I can’t find the study but people over estimate whether someone looks familiar, especially in stressful situations. - There are people in prison right now because they look like the perpetrator. - Imma give you a guess as to the races of these people. - The wikipedia article on eyewitness testimony goes into more detail. - The book ‘Picking Cotton’ is a hard read, but its nonfiction about a woman realizing she identified the wrong man for SA. Its excellent. 
 
- Happens all the time. Just look up prison doppelgänger and you’ll get a bunch of hits. One guy spent 17 years falsely imprisoned. 
- If you want to listen to a fun episode of Behind the Bastards regarding this topic: - Behind the Bastards: Part One: The Bastards of Forensic Science - https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-the-bastards-of-forensic-science 
- Why do you think the homicide clearence rate has plummeted? Can’t just swing by a random black person, beat the shit out of them, and pin a crime on them like you used to. 
- Step 1: Don’t be black. - Step 2: Don’t be born before 1960.- Actually nevermind lol. 
 
- This dude is trying to categorize all the different NPC variants. - We always joked about this when I worked at a really busy pizza place, how around the corner er all the npcs would spawn and sometimes you’d get the same one in a row just rendered a different color outfit 
- Very cool, I wonder how he finds the matches. - It’s Canada we all look the same buddy . - He’s not your buddy, guy. - He’s not your guy, friend. - He’s not your friend, buddy. - He’s not your friend, bub . - He’s not your bub, pal. 
 
 
 
- He’s not your guy, friend. - He’s not your friend, pal. - He’s not your pal, dude. - He’s not your dude, lad . - He’s not your lad, mate. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
- And this illustrates a problem of using facial recognition databases as a security measure. False positives lead to false convictions. - Would be an interesting test set for categorising the accuracy of such software. 
 
- Am I the only one that thinks most of them don’t look that similar? - I feel like that’s because we actually get to see them side by side. But if you were friends with one and saw the other as a stranger out in public, say the grocery store, it might warrant a “holy shit, I just saw someone who looks exactly like you,” text accompanied by an awkwardly zoomed in picture of them in the frozen foods aisle. 
- Well they’re not literal identical twins 
- You’re not alone, I thought the same thing… They don’t look that similar, they would make a really trash “spot the difference” challenge. - Ok now imagine you’re the only witness to a crime and the doppleganger walks in. You wouldn’t question your recollection?? - Bs - True, but probably also true if any person of the same skin tone and haircut walked in. 
 
 
- They look close enough to be fraternal twins to me 🤷🏻 - Yeah, maybe in some cases. It does feel like there’s a lot of heavy lifting being done by the styling, lighting and angles though. 
 
 
- When I was a young man I went on vacation to another city, and while there I was constantly approached by people who wanted to buy drugs from me. Apparently I had a doppelganger in that city who was a street corner drug dealer. - This used to happen to me literally everywhere I went. Sometimes you just give off a drug dealer vibe I guess? - For what it’s worth, I’m a bit odd because I’m autistic, and I’ve never touched a drug my doctor didn’t prescribe in my life. - They were calling me by a different name, so I’m pretty sure I looked like a known dealer. It was really weird, and kinda scary since several of the people that approached me were obviously in withdrawals and didn’t believe me that I had no idea what they were talking about. 
 
- So what did you sell them? 
 
- Their faces often match but their jawlines don’t. - The mustache people are cheats. 
- A few of them look so much alike, it’s uncanny. 
- Very cool and all, but why are all the doppelgangers in deep love with each other?  
- If I was sure I wasn’t related to them, banging my doppelganger would be a very interesting experience. 
- Marketing determined that having them blood covered, with ripped clothing, and holding blades at arms length wasn’t as appealing to most audiences - There can be only one, McLeod 
 
 
- Cool idea, but like most of these people don’t look alike at all. Completely different noses, jaws, chins, eyes, etc. - I think he’s going for a more subtle similarity. Like they look like they could be related but necessarily twins. 
- If they looked exactly alike it wouldn’t even be interesting. You could just photograph actual twins 
 
- News flash, none of us are as unique as we think. - Except me. I’m definitely unique. Right? - Just like everyone else! 
 
- None of us is as unique 
 
- Boy, a couple of his pics are lookin creepy. - What’s with the poses haha, it’s making me so uncomfortable.  - Effing fantastic. Lol 
 
 
 
- Two people that look alike but aren’t related. That’s what I’m talking about! 
- Tbh I’d be totally interested to find my doppelganger(s) from around the world. Just kinda like a neat experiment/experience. 
- What are the odds that both these guys, not related, looks like a douche? Man coincidences are fucking weird.  




















