Katie Huisman: Physical Attraction, Feb. 13 to March 8 at Initial Gallery, 2339 Granville St., Vancouver. Artist talk Feb. 22, 2-3 p.m.
Forget the expensive haircuts, teeth whitening strips and snappy new clothing. If you're serious about attracting a romantic partner, you need to start carrying around a ruler.
Physical attraction has much to do with measurements, according to recent findings by Vancouver-based photographer Katie Huisman. For her new solo exhibit, aptly titled Physical Attraction, on until March 8 at South Granville's Initial Gallery, Huisman photographed 50 couples, varying in age, ethnicity and sexual orientation. The length of the relationship also ranges, from two months to 61 years.
Ever-curious about the nature of attraction and the instant magnetism that draws certain people together, Huisman snapped each of her subjects from 12 different angles and then superimposed the partners' faces on top of each other, creating a composite image. She then measured the distance between pupils and discovered that, of the couples photographed, 90 per cent of the horizontal distances between the eyes match within two millimeters. And when viewed from the side, the couples appeared to mirror each other.
"It's interesting that 86 per cent of the profiles matched up in the couples that I studied," she says.
Additionally, Huisman found that 86 per cent of the vertical distances between the nose and eyes match.
The results surprised her. "I thought perhaps the matching faces would be more evident in younger couples," she says, explaining she originally believed people in their late teens and 20s might be more likely to get together based on physical appearance. But she was wrong. "It's totally systematic throughout all ages, so I was really surprised by that."
So what about the old belief that opposites attract? Huisman considered that and intentionally recruited photo subjects who, superficially, looked very different when viewed side by side.
"But sure enough, layered together, their eyes are equally matched," she says, recalling one couple in particular - a Cambodian man and a Caucasian woman - whose composite shocked her. "Their eyes and jaw match perfectly."
Originally from Vancouver Island, Huisman studied photography at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. She runs a freelance commercial photography business in addition to pursuing her artistic projects. Physical Attraction is her first solo exhibit in Vancouver. The concept came to her three years ago.
"I found myself really interested in observing people in romantic partnerships and kind of taking a look at their faces and wondering what attracts them and noticing similarities between couples and spouses," she explains. "That really inspired me to start photographing them and looking at them in a really systematic way."
Realizing that many long-term partners adopt each other's expressions and mannerisms over time, Huisman opted to shoot all her subjects mug shot style and in black and white to strip the couples of any similarities that might be apparent in person.
While she says she realizes there is more to attraction and the nature of relationships than mathematical measurements, she also doesn't think the similarities she discovered are coincidental.
"Personally, it's changed my own view in romance," she says of her photo series. "It made me realize that our intellect and our instinct maybe sometimes have a little bit of a battle. Certain relationships you may pursue more on an intellectual level, others may be more a primordial attraction."
In researching the "why factor," she came across the not-so-romantic concept of assortative mating, which states that animals, humans included, tend to selectively mate based on common characteristics. Meanwhile, she's heard many inquiries as to what role narcissism plays in partner selection.
"That's not something I've looked into too much," she says, "but it creates an interesting conversation, especially with our information world and our constant self-profiling."
Whatever the reason behind her "similars attract" findings, Huisman hopes her exhibit creates a discussion - one that she is excited to participate in on Feb. 22 when Initial Gallery hosts an artist talk.
"The reality is, long-term relationships and coexisting with somebody is a constant process of evolutionary flux," she says. "The purpose of the show is to create a conversation around physical attraction and romance."
