Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

I received this photo from Carlos Santos, from Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal. “I took this picture of a house near mine, I was just experimenting, but later found the face you can see when zooming in… and I can’t find a valid explanation”, Santos wrote me.

He sent the original file, and besides being a fascinating and slightly spooky image, it shows no evidence of tampering I could find. Perhaps it’s the expression, perhaps it’s because it’s in black and white, or because it does not show a complete face, but it looks eerily similar to Joseph Carey Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man as portrayed in the movies.

Keep reading for a suggested explanation (well, it’s in the title, but anyway).

Though the face looks very detailed, we suggest nevertheless it’s merely pareidolia. Apparently there’s a patch of exposed concrete inside the room, and due to various factors including the light from the flash, that face must have appeared.

I asked Santos if he had other pictures of the same place but from slightly different angles, and he kindly sent me another photo, “taken five minutes after the first”. I post a cropped and enhanced version below:

Highlighted by the circle (click to enlarge) is the area of exposed concrete (it could also be plaster) which I think created the illusion of a face.

A very nice illusion, must I emphasize. Folks suggested it also looks like the Moon Face of George Meliés, the expressiveness of Klaus Kinski, Edward Scissorhands and even Robocop.

Well, for once it doesn’t look like Jesus. [Many thanks to Carlos Santos and Maracuja]