Optical Illusions of Smoke

The following are actual photos of smoke, true some post processing was done but everything you see in these images is photographed smoke. These are the work of Csaba Mészáros of Budapest, Hungary. I asked him permission to use the "Intimacy" image and he suggested two others. The most amazing of the three is the one below titled "Mom and Baby".


Mom and Baby
(c) Csaba Mészáros 2005
Used w/permission

You can read a brief biography on Csaba and find out exactly how he accomplished these amazing images in the January 2012 issue of PBase magazine.

Here is a short starter explanation he gave in a comment a couple years back,

"The setup is quite simple: the smoke comes from incense sticks (made in India), they are cheap and produce a constant smoke for a long period of time (and also a pleasant scent). The light source is a fashgun from side and behind. You need a black material for the background and something to shade the direct light from the flash to the lens. Plus some patience and some trials. "

Intimacy
(c) Csaba Mészáros 2005
Used w/permission

In the above image "Intimacy" two separate photos were merged into one during post processing to complete the duality of a male and female.


Apparition
(c) Csaba Mészáros 2005
Used w/permission

Csaba, Thank you for sharing your images here. You can find more photos of his on PBase.

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Erotic Silhouette Optical Illusion

This came to my attention via Kisrael.com. I know what some of you might be saying, I said the same thing when I first saw it. "How the heck does this classify itself as an optical illusion? For that answer you'll have to read the full article.

(c) Nobuyuki Kayahara 2003
Ambiguous Rotation

This is very much like the Ferris Wheel optical illusion I posted previously, depending on how you look at her she will either be spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise. You don't believe that it is possible for your mind to see this image rotating any way but the way you see it now, do you?

One of the reasons that this is possible is that it is a silhouette and the very nature of a silhouette is ambiguous.

Try looking at the reflection and see if she reverses direction. I shift my focus to the side and can tell in my peripheral vision that she has changed direction, I then move my eyes back on the silhouette and walla she is rotating in the other direction.

What is even more amazing is that if you see her spinning clockwise then it is her right leg and arm that is up in the air, but if you see her spinning counter-clockwise then it is her left leg and arm that are up in the air.

My initial view of this illusion is that she is rotating counter-clockwise, but once I manage to see her spinning the opposite way it is hard to switch back. Which way does she appear to spin to you? Can you see her spin in either direction?

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Shadow Illusions

Here is a series of shadow illusions by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. A 2003 press release describes them thusly,

Tim Noble and Sue Webster. Partners in both life and art, Tim Noble (1966) and Sue Webster (1967) explore the toxic influences of consumer culture through new modes of portraiture. Turning garbage into complex and visually arresting sculptural installations, Noble and Webster exploit, manipulate and transform base materials, often using self-portraiture to undermine the “celebrated” authorship of the artist.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Dirty White Trash [With Gulls] ©1998
Six months' worth of the artists' rubbish



Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Real Life is Rubbish, ©2002

Joe La Placa of Artnet had the following to say about the next two installations,

"Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s aptly titled exhibition, “Modern Art is Dead,” is an irreverent version of a shadowy Plato's Cave. Riding on the wake of their successful solo exhibition at P.S.1 in New York, the naughty couple continue to astound audiences with their transgressive alchemy of light, shadow -- and scraps of steel!

In the bawdily titled The Crack, we enter a dark room where an assemblage of welded steel scraps stands in the middle of the gallery like a lonely Giacometti figure.

A light source in front of the sculpture casts a halo of light -- and a crack-like shadow -- against the wall behind it.


Tim Noble and Sue Webster
The Crack ©2004
(installation view)
Modern Art, London

Initially confounding (most tend to see the shadow as a positive space) we realize that the shadow is the negative space between two standing nude figures facing each other -- self-portraits by Noble and Webster.

The main work in the show, HE/SHE, is far more explicit -- there's no hiding in the shadowy crevices.

Two modernist-looking steel sculptures produce distinct silhouettes of the artists -- taking a piss! Could this be the artist’s commentary on modernism, a metaphorical marking of art turf?


Tim Noble and Sue Webster
HE/SHE ©2003
(installation view)
Modern Art, London

I loved the skill needed to create these fascinating shadow self-portraits. They obviously are very passionate about their art. But they don't just do shadow illusions here is a word illusion very much like the one in this post.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster
" " ©2003

I'll let you fill in the title of this piece.

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Message of Love from the Dolphins

How old are you ?

That question may determine what you see in the optical illusion picture below by Sandro Del-Prete. If you are very young you will see nine dolphins at play. If you are not very young you will see a couple in an erotic embrace.

What is very young? I asked my 8 year old son what he saw and he told me he saw a man and woman, but we didn't explore details of what he saw. However it has been said that younger children don't have the context to see anything other than the dolphins.

You have been able to see the nine dolphins by now haven't you? No? Come on now get your mind up out of the gutter and look a little harder.

If it makes you feel any better it took me quite a while to see the dolphins. Once you find one the rest will be obvious.

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Wishful Drawing Illusion

This series of drawings are all titled wishful drawings. I don't know who did this set but I find them unique. I know anyone could draw pictures like these but I have not come across any others in all of my searches.

Could be though that this artist might just be a little too into his work.

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The Lady's Silhouette

Below is a silhouette of a lady. The question I have is which direction is she facing? Is she facing toward you or away from you? When we don't have all of the visual details our mind often fills in what is not there.

Antonio Zamora
copyright 2004
used w/permission

Did your mind fill in the details for her to be facing you or for her to be facing away from you? The truth is from the silhouette above it is impossible to tell, either answer could be accurate. See the below two penciled in silhouettes to see why.

Antonio Zamora
copyright 2004
used w/permission

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