Have you ever looked at a photograph and instantly felt like you had seen it somewhere before?Not the same image, not the same product, but a strange familiarity that makes you pause.
Maybe it is the warm morning light filtering through a thin curtain. Maybe it is a small, seemingly ordinary gesture, a hand holding a cup in a certain way. Or maybe it is a shade of green that reminds you of the curtains in your grandparents’ home.
And in that moment, the photograph stops being just about what it shows. It becomes a doorway to an emotion you recognize without knowing why. You are not just looking at an image; for a brief moment, you are meeting a piece of your own past.
Memories invented by the mind
What you feel in that instant is not always a real memory. Our brain is like an artist of collages, taking what it sees in the present and filling in the gaps with fragments from the past, from dreams, from forgotten scents.
Picture a photograph of a cup of tea by a window on a rainy day. You may never have lived that exact moment, yet it reminds you of reading a book on a cold afternoon, or the smell of wet wood in a cabin. The brain makes quick connections, combining pieces of reality with imagination, creating a sense of familiarity.
That is why two people can look at the same image and feel completely different things. For one, the light might mean peace. For another, it might awaken an old sadness. The photograph is only the starting point. The rest of the story is completed by the viewer.
Familiarity, the ingredient that draws you in
Skilled photographers and big brands know how to use this mechanism. They introduce subtle details, an old vase, a certain way the light is filtered, a texture you instantly recognize, all to create the feeling that you have been here before.
It is no accident. Familiarity builds trust. In marketing, this is known as the “mere exposure effect”: the more familiar something feels, the more positively we perceive it. And in product photography, this can be achieved without the viewer even realizing it.
Think of an ad for a new sofa. If the background subtly resembles your idea of the perfect living room, with warm light, wooden shelves and plants, the product suddenly feels closer. You do not see it as a foreign object, but as something that could already be part of your life.
What makes an image memorable
A memorable image is not necessarily a spectacular or complex one. Often, the most powerful photographs are those that spark emotion through a tiny detail.
It might be the way the sunlight falls on a wooden table, the steam rising from a bowl of hot soup, or the reflection of a candle in a glass. They are small details, but they can reactivate an entire story from memory.
What makes them memorable is that they do not try to force an emotion. They suggest it. And this freedom of interpretation encourages the viewer to get involved, to complete the image with their own experience.
In conclusion
Perhaps images do not give us a sense of déjà vu. Perhaps we are the ones who bring our memories with us.
Photography then becomes a bridge between what we see and what we carry inside. Between the present and the past. Between the real and the imagined.
And it is in that uncertain space, where emotion blends with image, that the magic happens.
A good image is not just a representation of an object. It is an invitation. A chance to find yourself, if only for a moment, in a story that feels like yours, even if you have never truly lived it.
