Reactions to the Face On Mars -- collage by douglas brent smith. It seemed like a revelation, a sign. Pictures taken of the surface of mars seemed to show a face. Could this mean that there was an intelligent civilization there once upon a time? Many years later, when our cameras produced much higher resolution images we saw that it wasn't really a face at all. It's just something that people do -- we see faces everywhere. We anthropomorphize wildly. Well, the illusion was fun while it lasted. And it lasted long enough to be on my mind when I made this collage in 1993.