Most of us have an image of our ideal that is cemented in our heads, an image that we can see clearly in our heads but cannot properly portray or describe so that others can also perceive what we really want to look like would. The photographer Scott Chasserot came up with a pretty clever idea of how to use people based on their brainwaves for his idealized series of portraits «Original ideal» can hold on.
Chasserot took simple and unadorned head shots of his volunteers, then by using an editing software, he made dozens of altered versions based on the "scientifically established canons of beauty."
By presenting the edited photos to the volunteers while they wore EEG headsets, Chasserot was able to analyze their brain waves and identify which version they preferred the most based on positive neural reactions. The preferred photo was then labeled as their “ideal” appearance.
«What do we find instinctively beautiful in the human face and how does this translate to self-image? What assumptions would we make about another person if we could see their ideal self-image? Original Ideal combines portrait photography and neuroscience to isolate the subjects' ideal self image, a cerebrally sincere preference obtained by circumventing conscious thought.»