Sujet

Face image tree, Halloween, eye sockets, mouth shape, ugly face tree, human characteristics, seeing faces, Face pareidolia, fake faces, gnarled old.

Légende

People often see shapes and patterns that they regard as meaningful in the natural world around them. For instance, they might see a face in a cloud, or a religious symbol in the shape of a rock. During the Middle Ages these shapes seen in natural objects were known as Lusus Naturae, or Jokes of Nature. It was the belief of medieval naturalists that Nature actually played jokes on man by purposefully placing shapes such as crosses or faces in objects for men to find. Nowadays, science attributes such shapes to the power of the human mind to impose meaning on the chaos of the world around it. This psychological phenomenon is known as pareidolia, which refers to the tendency of the mind to discern meaningful patterns in vague or random stimuli. Trees offer a random natural surface on which the human eye often perceives recognizable shapes—faces, in particular. As a result, stories about people seeing faces in trees are a regular feature in the news. In the western world observers are most likely to describe a male face in a tree as looking like Jesus, and a female figure (particularly a robed one) as being the Virgin Mary. Collected below are some examples of recent sightings of faces in trees. A ‘MONSTER’ tree twice the height of house a few feet away can now be removed. District councilors ruled on Wednesday (August 20) to remove a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) on the large Conifer in Albert Park Mews, so it could be maintained properly or even taken down. Residents in the close had complained the tree – a golden Cypress's specimen – overhung the narrow road and blocked visibility for drivers in both directions. They also claimed there had been near misses between cars and warned a head-on collision was waiting to happen. But Chris Lewis-Farley, landscape officer at Malvern Hills District Council, had called for the TPO to remain arguing Albert Park Mew was a quiet road with few cars.

Info+

Photographe : Steve Welsh

Date

09 févr. 2015

Crédit

Photo12/Alamy/Steve Welsh

Notre référence

LMY24T01_EG7HPD

Utilisation

uniquement en France

Model release

Non

Property release

Non

Licence

Libre de droits

Format disponible

60,2Mo (2,9Mo) / 31,7cm x 47,5cm / 3744 x 5616 (300dpi)

Mots clés

face shape eyes nose mouth visual cortex facial shapes social interactions nature-based spirituality social signals religious monster face zombie tree phenomenon human characteristics seeing faces fake faces human face ugly face non-human shapes pareidolia patterns random symbol shape shapes natural objects lusus naturae medieval naturalists played crosses faces men tree halloween face psychological natural world face in a cloud stimuli imagination nature face pareidolia clouds drifting random patterns gnarled old tree face shaped