Brazilian Artist Aims to Catalog Every Skin Tone
Brazilian photographer Anjelica Dass is on a mission: to document every possible skin hue in the world. The ambitious artist is using head shots of models of various ages, genders, and races, taking 11×11 pixel samples of the complexion, then adding a background that aims to match exactly the color of their skin, using the Pantone color guide as a reference. She’s calling her endeavor The Humanae Project and chronicling its results on a Tumblr page.
Dass, 33, was recently featured on “The Today Show,” which reported the following about her process:
Dass uses Pantone colors because their alphanumeric codes allow them to be accurately represented across different types of media. So far, Dass has only photographed in Spain, but she has her sights set on expanding her subject area. “What I really wish is to photograph all over the world,” the artist told TODAY.com.
In the “Today Show” report, Samantha Randazo of Styleite admits she finds the endeavor dubious: ”We’re somewhat skeptical that it’s possible to document every human skin tone, but even so, what a cool idea!” We’re inclined to agree. Is there a finite number of skin color possibilities? Would our culture adopt a Pantone-based system for referencing or cataloguing complexions and, if so, to what end?
Regardless of the project’s practical application possibilities, it’s definitely a fascinating concept, and the results, when viewed in the mosaic-like style in which Tumblr displays them, make a striking and beautiful statement about diversity and the vagaries of skin-tone differences.
What do you think? Is it possible to track every skin tone in the world? If so, in what ways could this information be used?
Yes, nice concept yet many people are not one solid shade. I see she points out certain parts of their face and chooses the tone. Browns are the most complexed and are likely to look less accurate with the pantone color background. I’ll wait to see more darker shades.
Seems cool but her Tumbler page only really had like 5 people with brown variations of skin and like more than 100 with white variations of skin..
I’m not sure what kind of color spectrum or sample size she’s planning on using… But in theory if she had an infinite amount of people to measure and a color spectrum going from pure white to pure black with all colors in between… theoretically there should be an equal amount of people that would be considered white as that would be considered black. Quite an undertaking considering that just from a mathematical standpoint, there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of color possibilities. I’d be interested to see how this pans out.
Wow I didn’t know white came in so many colors of white -_-
I’m saying…….had no clue there was that many shades of pink. :/
lmaoooo @ shades of pink
LMAOOOOO!! That had my eyebrows raised heaven wards!
THAT’S PRETTY COOL. MAYBE SHE CAN EXPEND THE PROJECT BY ADDING MORE THAN ONE PANTONE FOR THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE AN EVEN SKIN COLOR
“In what ways can this information be used?”
Creating the perfect makeup foundation. If they can perfectly blend the colors for the background, they would have the formula for the perfect mix to get an exact match. They can even allow women to take a photo of themselves and run it along the shades until they find the perfect one.
No more bogus pics with the flash- you know the one, when you see where the makeup ends and the real skin appears.
Just looked at the site. OMG, this would be GENIUS for makeup companies! It’s crazy how subtle the differences between reds, pinks, yellows, oranges…I’d never notice on my own.
Now, time to marry a rich dude or get on a reality show so I can start my “foundation line…”
The makeup connection didn’t even cross my mind until now… That’s absolutely brilliant…