Each year in Twinsburg, Ohio, a unique festival celebrates a special bond that only a few can truly understand. Since 1976, Twins Days, considered the largest annual gathering of twins in the world, has attracted thousands of people to celebrate their identical others. The festival is not exclusive to just twins — it also celebrates triplets, quadruplets, multiples, doppelgängers, best friends, non-twins, and everyone in between.
This year, photographer Hannah Thomson attended Twins Days to capture portraits of these unique relationships.
Twins have always been a source of intrigue and inspiration for Thomson. "There are a lot of twins on both sides of my family, young and old, and growing up I was always very curious about this phenomenon," Thomson tells BuzzFeed News. "In my twenties, when I was figuring out my directions in life, I felt like I was struck by lightning when I saw two photographs by the legendary Diane Arbus ('Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J., 1967' and 'Triplets in Their Bedroom, N.J., 1963'). Everything clicked for me and made sense when I saw these photographs."
Here are some of the twins that Hannah Thomson met during this year's Twins Days.