These Celebrity Portraits Are Actually of Wax Figures

Photographer Peter Andrew Lusztyk recently shot a series of portraits of some of the biggest celebrities on Earth. But look a little closer and you’ll notice that there’s something “off” about each one, and that’s due to the fact that each headshot actually shows a realistic wax figure.

Lusztyk was given special access to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Las Vegas, where he went around to the different exhibits. He aimed to make the figures look as lifelike as possible on camera with careful setup and lighting.

“The lighting was a very simple medium-sized soft box with self-contained Profoto heads,” Lusztyk tells PetaPixel. “I wanted to keep it front lit, soft, and neutral. In the museum, the exhibits are lit with very hard little spot lights. I think by softening up the light it actually makes them appear much more life-like.

Lusztyk’s goal with the project was to explore the “uncanny valley,” the idea that figures with near-identical likenesses to humans causes uneasiness or revulsion in people who look at them.

“My hope is to extend the project to other Wax museums around the world,” Lusztyk says. You can find more of his work on his website.

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Image credits: Photographs by Peter Andrew Lusztyk and used with permission