I featured this previously as the Student Union Optical Illusion. At the time I had no idea who had created this illusion. Since then I discovered that this illusion was created by Walter Wick for his book Optical Tricks.
Who is Walter Wick? You can check out his biography here. However if you have kids I'll bet you may already own a book or two that he has photographed or illustrated. That is if you have any of the I Spy series of books. It turns out I was a big fan of Walter Wick's work and didn't even know it. Click this link for Walter Wick's books @ Amazon.com
Long story short, I contacted Mr. Wick and asked permission to use this photo here on my blog. He was very gracious and has granted me permission to show this image here.
"Going Up?"
©Walter Wick, 1998
from Optical Tricks
Used w/permission
©Walter Wick, 1998
from Optical Tricks
Used w/permission
Mr. Wick took it one step further though and has allowed me to publish below exactly how he managed to create this optical illusion.
Like many optical illusions created to be photographed this one only looks complete when shot from one specific angle.
Anyone can digitally manipulate an image but few have the creative mind and patience needed to stage such an illusion. You can read Walter's comments on this illusion here.
Thank you Mr. Wick for your generosity in allowing me to post this here and as a parent I want to thank you for many hours of enjoyable time with my children trying to find all of the items in your I Spy books.
3 comments:
While the composition does look right, it's the shadows that tell the truth, and kinda break this illusion.
Good observation, if you go to Walter Wick's page he points out the exact same thing.
I think the shadows just add to the mysterious effect. I have the book this picture is from and I spent a long time trying to puzzle out how it worked. This is a great picture, one of my favourites from that book. Well done.
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