’s reconstruction of Mary Queen of Scotland. (Courtesy of Matt Loughrey / My Colorful Past).
The photorealistic images comprise thousands of individual layers which are knitted together. By blending his programming skills with his rich historical knowledge of the lives (and deaths) of the figures he recreates, we, the audience, can gaze upon the faces of real historical figures that are long gone.
One criticism of Loughrey’s work, and indeed that of many other experts involved in facial reconstructions, is that the application of facial colorings and hair patterns are all subjective and subject to interpretation. However, through the technological process, different skin colorings, hair styles or facial hair is but the press of a button away as everything is built on individual layers, and these can be switched on or off on demand.