Ulric Collette’s Merged Family Portraits Reveal Striking Genetic Resemblances
Published 16:42 31 Oct 2026 GMT
He said the images featuring his own family were particularly precious to him
A photographer with a penchant for merging the portraits of family members together into one face got the idea from a project he was doing with his son, and the results are striking.
Canadian artist Ulric Collette developed the Genetic Portraits series after doing a year-long self portrait project with his son where he wanted to combine what the two of them looked like and see if it would recreate how his own face had looked as a child.
While he was putting it together he found the results fascinating and decided he wanted to further explore the idea with other members of his family.
The results create a face of many features, some childlike and some clearly belonging to an adult, capturing the similarities and differences in the family resemblance.
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The photographer said the merging of pictures of his daughter and her grandmother meant a lot to him (Ulric Collette Genetic Portraits)
Starting the series back in 2008, Quebec-based photographer Ulrich takes a picture of two relatives in the same light and framing and then merges half of the image with the corresponding other half.
"Two portraits touched me deeply," the photographer explained of the ones which turned out closest to his liking.
"The first is my daughter Ismaëlle with my mother Ginette, taken when Ismaëlle was 13. The similarities are obvious and striking. The second is a portrait of me with my father, made one year before he passed away. I consider it something precious."
Most of the people he approached to be part of Genetic Portraits were because they resembled each other, and even when two relatives didn't seem much like each other it was easier to spot with their faces lined up togther.
Ulric said the picture he made of himself and his father was 'precious' to him (Ulric Collette Genetic Portraits)
"That resemblance often lives in small details: the way someone smiles, their expressions, the wrinkles around the eyes that follow the same lines," he added of where best it was to look for the signs.
"Even when there seems to be little resemblance at first glance, there is always some."
While there were similarities between the pictures the photographer said that it ends up being 'a mix not a copy', noting that even if certain details line up perfectly others won't.
He also pointed out that since he gets to choose which side of the face to use and where to line them up he created his 'own interpretation of their resemblance'.
Sometimes the details show how much people really look like each other, as this combination of a son and mother shows (Ulric Collette Genetic Portraits)
The pictures he's taken and combined show how alike and dissimilar people can look from each other at the same time.
He said: "Everyone wonders what they got from their parents, and these images give a partial but very concrete answer. I think that’s why people connect with the series.
"I always do the session with all participants present, and what stays with me most is the bond between them.
"The people who choose to take part in the project usually share a real closeness, and I think that comes through in the images too."
Collette isn't the only photographer who likes to share the contrast between two similar images, as Steven Burton developed his own project showing people what they'd look like without tattoos.
Featured Image Credit: Ulric Collette Genetic Portraits
Topics: Art, Community, Parenting
