Captivating Portraits Capture How People Look Turned Upside Down

How different can someone appear if you simply change the way that you'd normally look at them? Cape Town-based photographer Anelia Loubser explores this idea in her series Alienation, which is a collection of portraits that capture people turned upside down. The black and white photographs are zoomed in and show us crystal-clear depictions of the eyes, foreheads, and hair in ways that we aren't used to seeing.

With this slight shift, Loubser creates entirely new faces that are uniquely strange yet oddly familiar because of their human features; a quick glance could make it seem as if these pictures are of alien beings. It results in a beautifully eerie set of images that are wonderfully expressive thanks to forehead wrinkles and arresting sets of eyes. We're able to appreciate how small changes in our vantage point can produce completely new, interesting compositions and stories.

Anelia Loubser Behance page
via [Photojojo]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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