'Black Mirror' wedding dress reflection photograph is finally explained
Niamh Shackleton
8 hours ago

A woman thought she'd discovered a glitch in the matrix after seeing a photograph of herself in her wedding dress.

Writer and comedian Tessa Coates sent the internet into a frenzy with the snap where she was stood on a podium while trying on a wedding dress.

In front of her were two large mirrors - each showing a different reflection.

“I went wedding dress shopping and the fabric of reality crumbled. This is a real photo, not photoshopped, not a pano, not a Live Photo," Coates said of the eerie photo.

"If you can’t see the problem, please keep looking and then you won’t be able to unsee it. Full story in my highlights (THE MIRROR) Please enjoy this glitch in the matrix/photo that me nearly vomit in the street. Also, I’m engaged!”

People quickly compared the photo to something straight out of Black Mirror, but you'll be pleased to know that this has since been debunked (and it has nothing to do with something thought up by Charlie Brooker).

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Coates explained that she went to an Apple store and waited two hours to talk with an Apple Genius in the hopes of them working out what the hell was going on.


Tessa thought she'd found a glitch in the matrix. Credit: Instagram/@wheatpraylove
She told her followers: "As I'm waiting on the ground floor, I show the guys in the blue shirts (who aren't the Geniuses), I show them the picture and I really thought the moment I showed any of the people in the shop, they'd be like, 'Ah yeah, weird but but I know what this is'.

"Instead they lost their minds."

A 'queue of 20 people' who worked at the store then formed a line to see the photo for themselves and were 'truly freaking out'.

But it was a Genius named Roger that saved the day and reassured Coates that she wasn't unknowingly starring in an episode of Black Mirror.

"[I] finally get upstairs to the Geniuses and it takes three Geniuses, and each Genius is more scared that the last," Coates explained.


Apparently Apple store workers 'lost their minds' over the snap. Credits: Instagram/@wheatpraylove
"Finally Roger is found, and Roger comes up from the basement and he's obviously the Grand High Wizard.

"He looked at it and he's like: 'Okay... I've never seen it this bad or this scary, but what happens is an iPhone is not a camera - it is a computer. So, when an iPhone takes a photo, it takes a series of burst images very quickly even though it's not a live photo, it's not a pano, it's not a burst.'"

Further reiterating what Roger said, she went on: "'It takes a series of images from left to right, and what it's done, in the exact moment that it crossed behind your back, you raised your arms in that half a split second.

"Then it's created a completely different image on the other side. It's made an AI decision to stitch those two photos together.'"