Look at the above photo. It does look like a overly touched up, but otherwise a fairly regular photo, right? Actually, it is not. To be honest, before I read the headline, I had this thought: “why does this portrait photo look so fake?” Well, looks like my suspicion was not unfound. This “photo” was actually computer-generated using nothing more than special effects software commonly used in making of films and video games. Surprised? Like I said, not quite to me. I already suspect something was amiss as it was too perfect to be true.
If you ask me, I’d say Saya was a lot more realistic. Then again, it must be super realistic enough that it managed to fool the French government into using it as the photo for his French national ID card. Yes. It apparently happened. Don’t ask me how and why no one in the department question the unusually brilliance in the image. Anywho, the person who created this studio-grade photorealistic ID photo is artist Raphael Fabre who said the person in the image was the CGI version of himself. He reportedly managed to pass it off as an actual photo of himself when he applied for the French national ID. The French government department in charge was, of course, clueless back then, but now that the cat’s out of the bag, we are not sure if it will cause a furore.
Fabre said he adhered to the official guidelines for photos, making sure the framing, lighting, and size were right for this official purpose. But why would anyone mess around the authority? About that, Fabre told Mashable France: “What interests me is the relationship that one has to the body and the image … absolutely everything is retouched, modified, and idealized. How do we see the body and identity today?” What can I say? Things that artists will do to prove a point can be rather, how do you say? Intriguing and sometimes, perplexing. But Raphael Fabre’s work may risk infuriating the government, but it does make us question: what’s real and what’s not?
Images and source: Mashable.
