Montreal photographer François Brunelle has spent 25 years photographing people who look strikingly alike but share no relation. His project, I’m not a look-alike!, explores identity, coincidence, and human connection through portraits of uncanny doubles.

Montreal

Montreal-based photographer Francois Brunel has dedicated 25 years to documenting unrelated look-alikes through his project, 'I'm Not a Lookalike.' Since 2000, Brunel has photographed 250 pairs of people who resemble each other but have no familial connection. The project began after Brunel was repeatedly told he resembled the character Mr. Bean, prompting him to explore the phenomenon of doppelgangers.

Brunel's subjects often meet for the first time in his studio, experiencing only brief surprise at their similarities. The project has attracted public fascination and media attention, including a feature in The New York Times. One participant, Liliana Rubin, shared her story of meeting her look-alike, noting that while their appearances have diverged over time, their mannerisms and energy remain strikingly similar. The project title, 'I'm Not a Lookalike,' reflects the mixed feelings of participants about their resemblance.

Photographer marks 25 years capturing unrelated look-alikes

There are apparently millions of people around the world who have registered on websites to find their doppelganger and our guest today has worked on projects taking pictures of doppelgangers for decades. He also did the photos for a New York Times piece a few years ago. The headline there was, your doppelganger is out there and you probably share DNA with them. Francois Brunel is a Montreal photographer. He has been working on the I'm Not a Lookalike project since the year 2000. It is a project dedicated to photographing lookalikes around the world. How many pictures of lookalikes have you taken? 250 up to now. I used to see lookalikes, but then that was it. And the other thing is I was told by people here in Montreal for a few years that I look like a certain Mr. Bean. They would say, oh Francois, you look so much like Mr. Bean. I didn't know what was Mr. Bean. One night I was watching television, which I never do. And then I see myself on television, but I recognize myself, I say, oh, this is me. So I started a project. When people come to my studio, sometimes they know each other beforehand, you know. Let's say you would say, oh, you know, I have a friend who looks like me and can we come to your studio? There's no surprise there. So I don't get the surprise effect. And the people who meet for the first time, they are surprised for about three seconds That's it? Oh, and then say, oh, how are you? And that's it. The shock value of the people seeing each other, that doesn't happen as much as you thought. Not at all. Well, it happens for maybe a few seconds. That's it. The interest seems there. People want to see these photos and people are fascinated by the topic. I'm glad because I'm fascinated myself. I knew a few people and I called them and some of them, you know, they agreed to be photographed. So about 10 of them, 10 couples. So I did their photos, but then I was short of anybody, you know, then I thought, oh, I'll put an ad in the newspaper. So nobody replied. So maybe I will ask the media. So that's what I did. And it took me a few years to get attention from the media. But to be clear, the people you take photographs of, they're not related. No, they're not related at all. Well, they must not be related because if they are, then it doesn't work. We're going to talk with one of your subjects, Liliana Rubin. Thank you for being here. Can you tell me about this experience and about meeting your doppelganger, Nina Rose? We have like a really like epic story. Originally, we were both living in Montreal at the time, OK? And we were, this was 25 years ago. My boyfriend at the time worked in a tattoo parlor and he saw a girl getting tattooed and he was like, you look exactly like my girlfriend. You should meet her. In the same kind of period of time, at some point, I was just like walking out of my house. And then there's this girl walking out of her house, which was literally next door, like the door next to mine. And I was like, and we were like, you look like me. And it was her. We found out we have the exact same birthday, like really July 13th, 1977. We love each other. Like we were instant besties. Our photograph is maybe one of the less like identical ones. But when you see us in person, we have the same like mannerism. Even now, actually, 25 years later, we look, we don't look like lookalikes anymore. Just the way that we aged was different. When you put us next to each other talking, we have the same, like we talk the same. We have the same energy. Your project featuring all these people who look remarkably like each other is called I'm Not a Lookalike. Why? Some people, they like the title, and some people, they just don't like it or they don't get it. With some of them who told me that they don't think they look like the other guy, I thought, yeah, maybe, why not? Let them speak, so, and let them say out of their heart, you know, no, I'm not a lookalike. I don't look like the other guy or the other woman. I thought it was more, more amusing.

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Breakdown