What do You See First? Men or Pillars?

Sometimes things aren’t always what they seem. Of course, if you’re a regular Mighty Optical Illusions follower, you probably already know this. So, I’m going to throw another optical illusion at you, but I have to ask—what do you see first…?

Men or pillars?

I saw the men first in this illusion, but some of you may have seen the pillars first. However, it’s all in how you look at it, really.

This men or pillar optical illusion is a good example of a figure-ground optical illusion. The pillars in this optical illusion are actually the figures, since they are in the foreground, and the men are the background. You can actually see both images, the men or the pillars, one at a time, but it’s difficult to see both at the same time.

After taking a good look at the men or pillars optical illusion shown here, you can actually see that it’s not a picture of men but of white pillars. Most likely, this is due to the detail put into the pillars. In more ambiguous figure-ground illusions, such as the Rubin vase, it can be difficult to discern which part is the main part of the image and which part is the background.

So, tell me—what did you see first in this image? Men or pillars?

To see another neat example of a figure ground illusion, check out the sexy columns optical illusion!