Monday, August 6, 2012

The Morphing Face...

I have always been fascinated with facial features, and in particular features as they morph and change through a person's lifetime.  These pictures here are me at age four, and me at age ... not four.  It amazes me how much my face has changed, and yet I can see in both pictures that it is me.  It is the same face that I have looked at in the bathroom mirror every morning for my entire life.  And yet, if I had been struck by blindness at an early age, and then suddenly recovered my sight today, I would look at the face and wonder, "Who the heck is that?"

Some friends of mine recently went to a high school reunion, and they said that even with name tags, they were not able to place a name to the faces, and vice versa.  Their school mates had morphed into completely different people, and it was like having a reunion with strangers.

The human face is fascinating and mysterious.  No other species on the planet has the range of emotions that the human face has.  I remember when I was a little girl, if I crossed my eyes my mother would say, "Don't do that, you'll stay that way."  In some ways I think that is true.  The experiences we have had over our lifetimes are etched in our faces.  We wear our emotions like a permanent imprint.

One of my cousins sent me the following video of the face of the Queen as it has morphed from an infant to an 86 year-old woman.  It's fascinating to watch it, and some of the greatest changes took place during the teen years and the 20s.  Once the Queen got into the middle years and beyond, her face stayed much the same, only an aging version of it.  It's very interesting, if you have the time to watch it.

13 comments:

DJan said...

That was fascinating to watching, Jo! Thanks for sharing it.

VioletSky said...

that was absolutely fascinating!

Leslie: said...

A truly magical video! Love it!

Linda Järve said...

Your blog is very interesting, thank you for your thoughts and pictures.

PhilipH said...

Hi Jo, another gold medal post and no mistake!

Thank goodness you've resumed your blog after your respite from it in favour of painting. You're such a thoughtful friend.

Best wishes, Phil

muthu said...

hmhm... Interesting video. I think that the face carries not just our years as they progress but they shape along with the intention with which we face life.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. That was fun to watch.

the walking man said...

I agree with everyone else. And will add She is one bright woman. Always smile and no one will know what you're thoughts are until you express them.

Single and Sane said...

What a fun video. It's interesting to watch in terms of what was going on in the world and in her life at each point. I remember around 1970 a magazine -- I think it was Ladies Home Journal -- publishing portraits of what famous women of the day would look like in the future. I think it was projecting 20 years or so. As I recall, they got the Queen pretty much right but were way off on Jackie O. Someday I need to try to track that issue down to see how accurate it was, now that we would be looking at the past instead of to the future.

Margaret

heartinsanfrancisco said...

You still look very much the same. When my high school class had its big reunion a few years ago, I didn't go but they posted pictures. Most of them were completely unrecognizable without captions. I can still see my childhood and young woman's face in my present one, but it's possible that no one else could.

Linda Myers said...

Great video! Thanks for posting.

Paula Slade said...

Wonderful video Jo! It is truly fascinating to see history written on the human face.

KeyReed said...

Captivating.