Apophenia

Pareidolia is a type of apophenia involving the perception of images, like faces or figures in otherwise different objects.

I can’t help it. Pretty much wherever I go I stumble across hidden otherworldly beings, often in transforming objects like clouds or dunes in strong winds, but also in rocks, shells, plants, and trees, or human-made objects like wallpaper or tile patterns.

The phenomenon of pareidolia is far more than a quirk of perception, it was and still is fundamental for our survival in an at least ambiguous if not potentially hostile world brimming with hungry predators. I find it quite remarkable how our brains transform randomness into something recognizable.

Despite being born from the necessity to perceive dangerous situations before it’s too late, it is also a wonderful tool for creativity. It has been used in the arts through the centuries, from da Vinci to Bosch to the expressionists and surrealists to create dreamy images highly influenced by our subconscious and less by our rationality.

Fantastic how a little glitch allows us to find ambiguity and meaning as an added value to the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

These images were shot right next to Duintrap, a set of stairs near the starting point of a wanderlust route through the Schoorl Dunes near Bergen in the Netherlands.

I see gaping mouths, twisted limbs and arms reaching up and out, haunting eyes and weirdly shaped forms reminding me of heads of mystic creatures I might have seen in vivid dreams.