Objects Are People Too

'My mind constantly rearranges everyday objects into faces. I've conditioned myself not to see them. Occasionally they break through. When that happens, I make polaroid photos. Nothing sought, nothing staged.' The phenomenon of recognising faces in everyday objects, called face pareidolia, is experienced widely. Once thought of as a symptom of psychosis, it is increasingly understood that pareidolia images are processed by the same mechanism that would normally process emotion in a real face. In Justin Sutcliffe's case, the likenesses often appear from combinations of objects randomly and fleetingly arranged rather than single items that happen to resemble faces. This collection of photographs represent a small selection of the images he has made around the world, often presenting themselves to him at unexpected moments during the course of his professional work.

Born in Brighton, Justin Sutcliffe succumbed to the lure of photography as a child after being given a camera for a day trip to France. He turned professional shortly after leaving school and moved to New York in his early twenties. Since then he has worked as an international reportage and portrait photographer in the commercial and editorial fields. His work has taken him to more than eighty countries. He has been published, displayed and featured in significant magazines, galleries and advertising campaigns worldwide and has garnered several major awards. He currently lives on the UK south coast, but travels to wherever the projects take him. Justin Sutcliffe is based in Folkestone, but travels internationally for his work.