Pictures of People or Faces

[Panic57]

When I was growing up, I couldn't stand to have pictures of people in my bedroom.  I would feel like someone was watching me and I hated it.  I think it was the blend of my night time fear of the dark and the feeling of someone watching me from pictures that creeped me out.   The fear doesn't extend to animals and I had tons of pictures and posters of animals.  Do you have that fear?  I still don't like the image of people in my room but it's fine if it's in another room. 

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I don't really have any fear of pictures of people in my bedroom. However, I don't have any on my bedroom wall. That's mainly because I like my bedroom walls to be clean-looking. In some old houses I have visited, I have seen pictures of deceased relatives on the walls. These I don't feel good about. It seems like these deceased folks are still there watching from the pictures on the walls.

 

[lexinonomous]

Wow, this is something I've never heard of. I have heard of people having a fear of dolls for this reason, but have never come across someone having a fear of photos. The only thing I ever had a fear of that was somewhat similar were portraits. I used to fear facial profiles of people I didn't know, but only during the evening. When I would go to sleep, it was hard for me to sleep with a portrait exposed in my room.


Do you fear that the photo itself is going to come to life (I'm being serious,) or is it one of those irrational fears that you cannot help? I understand having a fear that you cannot rationalize. I'm also wondering if the photos are of people you know or if they are just random photos of family members you may not know, but have been put in your room over the years?

 

[Surrender]

This is an interesting topic.  I don't have fear of photos but I do agree that painted portraits can creep me out, as well as dolls.  And I probably wouldn't want either in the bedroom while sleeping. I wonder where that fear comes from? I guess I would worry my imagination would take over and the doll or portrait would somehow spiritually try to affect me. 

 

[kelden]

I don't have any qualms with regular pictures. My issues are with those portraits with a look that stares at you regardless of your position, their eyes seem to follow you wherever you go. It's awkward as heck.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

I don't have this fear or concern anymore but when I was little I used to think the exact same thing, I was scared even of having images of religious stuff on my bedroom because I could feel like they were legitimately staring at me, and they all look incredibly creepy! And at night it was worse. But I took them off and now I just have a paint of Divine above my bed and I'm not scared anymore of it, I think that it has to do that I don't really see it but I'm pretty sure that it would be a different thing if I change it to another place of the room where I could see it. 

 

[fuzyon]

I always found them creepy but I never got scared of them, probably because of the fact that I'm not afraid of darkness and have never feared it in my life. What's funny is that I find paintings of people's faces creepier than an actual photo of a person, maybe because I know those people in real life?

 

[misszerable]

The only pictures displayed in my house are those of my son. I am quite selfish about my family's pictures and I have them stored in my steel cabinet. I scanned the family album and gave a copy of the digital file to each of my siblings so there's no need to leave the albums lying around.


I've been to houses of older relatives in the countryside who put large black and white photos of dead relatives on display in their living room. I find it scary, unsettling, and museum-ish. It's like I've been transported to another era when I saw the pictures, the living room's design, and the house itself. I stole glances at the photos but I can't bear to see the lively smile of the people in the photographs knowing that they are no longer with the living. It's scary to think that their souls must still be around in that house. 

 

[Choochoo]

I don't want pictures in my bedroom especially since I get creeped out when I do the deed with someone and my family is there staring at me. Honestly, I don't like family pictures in general, but I don't exactly know why, maybe I am just not in that stage in my life where I learn the importance of them yet. Still, even if I reach that point, I doubt I would put them in my bedroom. 

 

[pwarbi]

I wouldn't say that I have a phobia or anything as severe as that regarding having people's pictures on the wall, but I'm not all that keen either. There is something a little spooky about photographs and maybe I might have just watched too many horror films when I was a kid, you know, the ones with the haunted houses with portraits on the walls but the eyes follow you around the room, but there is something a little un-nerving when you look at a picture of a person's face.


In my house, we do obviously have the usual family pictures around, but  have to admit that I very rarely look at them and especially of the ones of members of the family who are no longer with us as I do find that kind of eerie that they are there looking at you, when they could be looking at you from the next life as well.

 

[Jasmin Cottontail]

I find this thread interesting in light of the fact that I as well have fear of photos. Well I can't say that it's actually a fear of pictures but perhaps there are certain pictures that send chills down my spine every time I look at them, particularly the photos during the Victorian Era. I don't know but whenever I see one, I can't help but get freaky even though there's nothing wrong with the pictures. I've also seen some Post-Mortem photos during the Victorian Era which totally creeps me out. I can say that old photography scares me for whatever reasons I do not know

 

[DDNatureLover]

The art on my bedroom walls is typically florals or other innocuous pictures. I do have one piece with a woman and a cat, but I've had that for years, so it doesn't bother me. I actually consider it to be me and one of my cats, so maybe that's why I like it. I can understand the doll issue, though. I've seen some odd looking sort of creepy dolls that I definitely wouldn't want in my bedroom. 

 

[hades_leae]

There was only one picture in my past that put fear in my heart, and that was this photo of a clown. It was the freakiest **** ever, I was a very small boy, and I went somewhere with my family, I think it was a museum...like a clown museum or something because they had a bunch of pictures of clowns everywhere, but the one I saw looked worse than the IT clown. Other than that, I never really had this problem.

 

[Panic57]

Wow, this is something I've never heard of. I have heard of people having a fear of dolls for this reason, but have never come across someone having a fear of photos. The only thing I ever had a fear of that was somewhat similar were portraits. I used to fear facial profiles of people I didn't know, but only during the evening. When I would go to sleep, it was hard for me to sleep with a portrait exposed in my room.


Do you fear that the photo itself is going to come to life (I'm being serious,) or is it one of those irrational fears that you cannot help? I understand having a fear that you cannot rationalize. I'm also wondering if the photos are of people you know or if they are just random photos of family members you may not know, but have been put in your room over the years?

Kind of, I just can't shake the feeling that someone is watching me while I sleep.  You know how is some of the older mystery movies, there is always that one painting that the serial killer or thief is watching the protagonist from and the eyes shift.  I think the darkness and my imagination just makes me see things.  I have pictures of my family and friends in the rest of my house but I just can't go to sleep in a room with pictures of people looking at me.  It just unnerves me.  So on some level, it's like worrying that they'll come alive or something.  I don't like dolls either and I used to bury the ones I got as gifts at the bottom of my toy box from pretty much the same reason.  Something about eyes watching me while I sleep freak me out.  But if I'm awake, I don't have an issue with the pictures.  

 

[TheKnight]

I have that fear and it's not because I feel that someone is watching me. In the dark, their faces morph and they begin to look scary the more you look at them. This can actually happen if you're in a very poorly lit room and look yourself in the mirror. Your face starts to morph and it can look scary.


I've read somewhere that your mind tries to fill in the dark spaces of the face somehow. 


What I did to cope with this is put a picture right in front of my bed. I then talk to the person in the picture like I do in real life and then I just imagine them as a nice monster here to protect me. 

 

[HiThere]

I actually had this Monster High poster of Laguana Blue (don't know if that's the real name but it was near that at least) when I was about 8-9 yrs old. Her eyes were closed, she was in a meditating position, but it still felt like she was wacthing me. It was right next to my bed so when got to bed to sleep, I sometimes didn't want to go to sleep because I felt like she would open her eyes when I wasn't looking. I eventually just threw it away when I got my own room (i had to share the room with my older sister) so yeah, that's basically the story of how I got scared of a FREAKING POSTER.

 

[biege]

I had the same problem when I was a kid. I grew up in an old house full of family portraits and I don't like it when I see the pictures of our family members most specially those people who already have died. Sometimes, I get to dream about those people and it scares me more if they started talking in my dreams. I no longer have this problem because we've already moved to another house 15 years ago.

 

[TheKnight]

I actually had this Monster High poster of Laguana Blue (don't know if that's the real name but it was near that at least) when I was about 8-9 yrs old. Her eyes were closed, she was in a meditating position, but it still felt like she was wacthing me. It was right next to my bed so when got to bed to sleep, I sometimes didn't want to go to sleep because I felt like she would open her eyes when I wasn't looking. I eventually just threw it away when I got my own room (i had to share the room with my older sister) so yeah, that's basically the story of how I got scared of a FREAKING POSTER.

Your eyes and mind sometimes trick you into believing closed eyes are open due to the shadows and you thinking about it. Some portraits even seem to move. To cope with it, just remember it is only your mind playing tricks on you. It's very cliche but it works. It's silly that a poster is watching you. Try to laugh about it too.