What Does This Black & White Photo Show?

Can you guess what does this image show? No? Don’t worry, it isn’t one of those Sigmund Freud testing cards. I can assure you it is actually an original (old) photograph, made in black and white technique, and wasn’t digitally tempered in any way. The solution is quite simple, in fact.

215 Replies to “What Does This Black & White Photo Show?”

  1. i really dont have a clue!
    I initially thought that it was an elephant on its side.
    Then i thought it was a birdcage, but i really cant see anything!

  2. Turn the photo 90° clockwise, that larger black spot on the right is someone wearing an eskimo hood. Well, it looks likt it.

  3. I see a cow’s head. It’s eye is that dot in the middle, it’s nostrils are at the bottom just left of centre.

  4. Hi,
    I have no idea about the photo.
    I tought it was a *Rorschard* testing card ;-)
    (Did Freud had any testing card like that?)

  5. This is an x-ray of a profile (teeth on left) of someones head who was possibly shot in the face and the pack off the skull is blown out. Maybe JFK.

  6. LOL At first I thought it was an evil demented pig. Now that I found out its a cow, I’m speachless. I’m NEVER WRONG ABOUT ILLUSIONS!!!

  7. Well, at first glance it looks like a skull, but on closer inspection it looked like a lady shopping for bras: The lower left is the wire shopping trolly, the upper left is the lady with possibly a fur coat, and on the upper right is a bra.

    Of course, the cow makes more sense, now.

  8. i saw a cow clearly, and then found the skull (because I’ve learned by adding this widget that you should never look only once!). Is there anything on the right side?

  9. Hi! I stared at it for about 3 minutes and then my 5 year old daughter came up and looked at the computer screen and said “It’s a cow”. Then I could totally see it.

  10. i cant see the skull but i can see the cow when i first looked at it i saw grenade like the green day thingy (lower left) and a cat sideways (upper right) and some random trees (lower right) but i guess my imagination was at work

  11. at first it reminded me of the cover of Led Zeppelin I, the Hindenburgh.. but after i read the comment about the cow i see that too =D

  12. ITS DEFINATLY A COW ………….

    WHERE ARE U GUYS GETTING SKULL FROM??????????????????????

    I CANT SEE A SKULL

  13. i can see loads of different things on this picture:
    the cow
    a fat man with a bag on his head
    A womans face
    a bear
    a teddy bear
    a little girl
    a little boy working
    an angel
    i cant understand how u people cant see these things!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. I see half of a skull on the left of the picture too…the scribbly bit is the mouth and the kinda roundish black blob above it is the eye. I couldn’t see the cow until I looked at the solution!

  15. At first I saw in the picture as a whole a face that sort of resembles Jason’s face with the mask on and then I saw the cow.

  16. This photo has been traveling around for years, my mother started carrying a 1″ x 1″ copy in her billfold in 1952 to show people “her cow”, 90% couldn’t see it. Actually the one I have is not quite so obvious, but it is the same photo.

  17. IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE THE PREVIOUSLY UNIDENTIFYABLE IMAGE, ONCE REVEALED ITS TRUE MEANING, BECOMES ABRUPTLY SELF-EVIDENT, ONCE AND FOR ALL REPLACING ANY POSSIBLE FORMER OWN’S MENTAL REPRESENTATION OF THE UNKNOWN PICTURE.

  18. wtf at first is saw a skull,……. like i could see the teeth and everything. Now i see the cows head, but i also still see the skull, its not a full skull just kind of cut in half…. well a little less then half its to the top left going down ¬¬

    dang cow! couldnt see it…….

  19. at first i saw on the left a kind of reptile. But after a while i saw the head of a deer or a young cow. Very nice!!

  20. I THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING DAFT, COULDN’T SEE IT, THEN LOOKED FROM A DISTANCE…….VERY GOOD, AND A VERY CUTE COW X THANKS

  21. I finally got it! I’ve been looking at this picture for ages and suddenly, after reading all these responses, it just appeared in a flash. Very cool…

  22. If you turn it to the right, it is looks like a turtle at the top and a cat on the bottom. But I do NOT see any cow anywhere!!

  23. its a cow indeed. you can tell since at the bottom of pic,it tells what pic is. WARNIG all pics have them

  24. i thought it looket like the persons skull, with the top right splotch as his/her ear, and the top left splotch as his/her eye

  25. am i the only one that sees a turtle on the left side of the pidture. It looks like the picture is on its side and the turtle is just standing there. But i also see the cow. I just wanted to point it out

  26. i see a man looking up a mountain. i see a cow aswell. the man is on the left and mountain on the right.

  27. It is a baby. Maybe a baby angel, there is also a wold at the top left cornor trying to attack the child.

  28. definately a cow, i’ve seen this before and i cant go back to seeing random patches now<!!, it's a giant cow face looking strait at you

  29. turn your head to the left and you will see a silhouette of a woman in 1900’s hat in a barn’s doorway with snow outside.

  30. its a cow. i totally see it now the two massive big patches are its ears and its eyes are under that the the long hi-lighted shadow part is the nose/snout.

  31. i see a cow.
    at first i thought it was a skull but after looking at the comments and asking a family member what they saw i realized its a cow.

    what drugs are some of you guys on?

  32. haha on the left bottom corner there is a child.. the 2 big black spots are the cows ears on the left and right side the black on the bottom is its nose/mouth.. the child is FACING the cow for a kiss or some sort

    tadaaaaaaaah

  33. I do see the cow, the “teeth” are fence boards wired together. its the left side of a cow looking right at you. legs and tail not showing. my god that took hours, OH the shame of it!

  34. i csnt see a cow i only see a face and a grenade i know its taged as a cow but kuilo is rught i think its a sky and the black stuff are clouds beacuse of the trees in the bottom right corner

  35. You guys its a skull can’t you see it on the left side of the photo! Seriously does anyone else see it?

  36. I see a cow. The faded grenade. Also the clouds with a tree in the bottom right corner.
    But I originally saw a teenage boy from behind, in a cloth jacket from the 80’s looking up while blowing out cigarette smoke. He’s holding the cig in his right hand which is slightly extended.
    However many interpretations there are, there is only one ‘correct’ one because it is in fact an actual photo. I’m not saying mine is right or wrong, just pointing out a fact. (: Curious..

    1. I also see the boy looking up, but I first saw the skull. I don’t see a cow. Most of you guys are just saying you see a cow because its in the tags.

  37. It’s definitely a skull. Sideview, with the teeth and eyes facing to our left. The best way to view it is to use a photo imaging program and turn the image into a negative.

  38. Caboose-I see a room.
    Sarge-And? What’s in the room?
    Caboose-There are some walls, and some ceilings. Wait! Just one ceiling.

    Okay, but really I saw two people facing each other one with like a plaid jacket or something. The jacket is the fence/grenade.

    1. I JUST see the cow…;) Unable to see anything else (at least so clear!) The dark spot at upper left is it’s right ear, lower spots it’s nose (forget the ‘grenade’ shit at left) and it’s left eye is coincident with left ear of that grotesc rotated to left cat (the bigger dark spot at upper right corner). It’s mainly the HEAD of a cow staring in our direction and a bit of it’s body

  39. This was another of the old illusions I used in my brain’s perception section of my class. It was from “Psychology and Life” 1959 coyright date.

  40. First a skull…
    Then a cloud…
    Then, FINALLY, (with help from the comments), a cow…
    Then a boy smoking a cigarette…
    Wow, this is one cool optical illusion.

  41. ok the whole picture is a cow on the left that is in a fence with the holes of the fence are 1×4 inches each. On the right is a man that has his right arm reaching out and on the cow’s ear. The “trees” that are seen are just part of his jacket or something. So now you all can relax, that is what is in this picture =)

  42. A cow is the first thing I saw, literally within about half a second of seeing the picture. Don’t understand how people aren’t seeing this?

  43. its a very old picture of a cow… and nothing else is there.. becoz of the oldness the picture is not so clear… thats y ppl see different things there.. but believe me nothing else is there but a COW!!

  44. Wow! I see a pig. If you go far enough from your monitor you can see a the face of a pig looking up to the camera.

  45. I believe it is a country like a globe. The black is water and the white is land. I used the Solarize effect on my phone camera and held it up to the picture and it looks like a country.

  46. I’d say skull left, landscape right side. OR… If the tilt your head to the right, the gap between the “teeth” of the skull is a tree, looks like a mountainish landscape.

  47. Oh and to help see it better ideways, on the bottom right, or top right if you are leaning right. it looks like over hanging branches of a tree. just hanging barely in view.

  48. I studied this and couldn’t see most of what people were throwing out there. Then I shrunk the picture (CTRL-mouse scroll) almost as far as I could and I immediately saw the cow. With a fence that runs behind his head.

    Moo.

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