Face Swapping

About

Face Swapping refers to the image-editing technique that involves digitally swapping the faces of two or more subjects depicted in a given photograph. The practice likely emerged in the 90s with advent of high caliber image-editing software and versatile selection tools.

A well-known variation of this practice is Facebombing, a similar technique that involves taking one face in a group and applying to all people in the photo.

Origin & Spread

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Highlights

Many photoshop-related memes born in the early 2000s, such as Asian Prince or Little Fatty and 4koma Reaction Guys can be seen as a precursor to Faceswap technique.

As early as in 2006, the Manbaby picture, featuring a man and (presumably) his child with their faces swapped, became popular.

Circa 2007, Weegee photoshop trend on 4chan’s /v/ also adopted a similar technique of face replication, turning anyone in proximity of Weegee’s gaze into another Weegee.

In November 2009, a single topic blog titled Nic Cage as Everyone began curating “Facebomb” pictures featuring American actor Nicolas Cage.

In March 2010, a faceswapped image of Jim & Pam from the American TV series The Office surfaced on the web. (HuffingtonPost)

Both Facebombing and Faceswapping has been applied in various instances of Tenso.

In February 2011, as popularity continues to spread; an open-community of Face Swappers named FaceSplat emerge to give a home to these hilarious Face Swaps.