The four faces reconstructed from random stock photos are those of Prince Charles, Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, and Angela Merkel. Amazingly, the resulting portraits look almost identical to the personalities they’re attempting to re-create. So much so that if the tonal differences between the sample photos were accounted for and edited out, it’d be near impossible to pick between a real portrait and the reconstructed one.
Below are the resulting portraits:
The idea behind the ad campaign was to show off how much variety Getty Images’ stock portfolio has to offer. In speaking to Adweek about the creation of the campaign, AlmapBBDO senior copywriter Daniel Oksenberg said, “If we can do almost anything with that many images, imagine what can be done combining them. The possibilities are infinite. It’s like genes. There are 25,000 genes that made every human being unique with the right combination. If 25,000 genes can do that, the millions of images from Getty Images should be able to do it, too. And it did.”
Every intricate detail of the portraits was the result of a “massive search,” Oksenberg added. It’s unknown exactly how much time went into each of the portraits, but it’s safe to assume it wasn’t a one-day project.
In addition to the four resulting portraits, a video (above) was created showing off just a few of the possibilities and options that came to light while AlmapBBDO was working on the project.
AlmapBBDO calls the campaign “game-changing,” and it’s hard to disagree. It’s impressive, original, covers the purpose of the campaign, and straight-up fun to look at.
