You meet so many people. And then you meet ‘em again.
To all of my friends and foes, it’s not you, it’s me. I don’t remember you and I don’t recognize your face. It has very little to do with you, it’s just that I don’t.
I started photographing as much as possible without being too intrusive - all because I noticed that I most probably won’t remember.
My doctor took the issue more seriously than I would expect and ordered an MRI scan for my head.
My head was in great shape. I still don’t remember your face. My doctor introduced the term «prosopagnosia», also called face blindness.
Who is this?
The average person can recognise 85% of these faces. You should too.
Being a little face blind is not really a problem.
A couple of weeks ago, this picture was posted on facebook. These were some of the comments.
Shit like this happens all the time. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what to do in these kinds of situations.
Most research on the subject of face blindness is done at Birkbeck Brain and Behaviour Lab at University of London. The Cambridge Face Memory Test is the most extensive online test available for all audience. The QR-code to the left will take you there.
The test lasts for 20–30 minutes and goes like this: The faces you see on the left side is shown for 20 seconds.
And then you have to choose the one face you’ve seen before (either 1, 2 or 3).
At the end of the test you get a score of how many faces you had correct. A score of 60% or less may indicate face blindness.
I got 61%.
It’s not that I don’t actually know you. It’s just that I might need a little more time to remember your face and where I know you from, than you need for me.
Nose piercings are sexy. Do I think that because it makes the face more distiguished, or is it the femininity of the jewlery?
Accessories is the best.
Glasses is a godsend. So is a distinct hair color.
«Regular», symmetric, beautiful faces makes the toughest faces to recognize. A lot of movies have so many beautiful symmetric actors/actresses in them, it makes it difficult to follow. The film «The Departed» was full of confusion.
I used to think that I was a bad person, who didn’t care about the people I met. By coincidence my doctor told me about prosopagnosia, and little by little I realized that it’s not just me being selfish. Being blind to faces is a thing.
2016 – Adrian Særsten