vExif II*
( 2 : B ( 1 1 J 2 | ; , i @ I was wandering the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago, admiring all the statues and work of so many ancient artists. Without expecting it, I turned and suddenly found myself face to face — no, eye to eye — with one of the faces carved in stone. The stone lept to life! I was nonplussed, shocked, dumbfounded.
Facial recognition, I know, takes place in a special part of our brain. Eye to eye contact activates that part of our brain like no other activity. I realized the stone hadn't lept to life; my brain had! To test this, I approached another statue from slightly off kilter and then stepped around so I was looking directly into its eyes. Wow!
This series of images is derived from just over an hour of wandering from statue to statue, engaging each in direct eye to eye (well, eye to camera lens) gaze. They are only stone, but they have such personality!