We measured broadband electrocorticographic changes from implanted electrodes on the ventral temporal brain surface (electrocorticography) while showing patients images of faces and houses, first plainly visible, then noise-degraded. These electrical potentials from the ventral temporal cortical surface in humans contain sufficient information for spontaneous and near-instantaneous identification of a subject’s perception of face and house images, using a combination of broadband spectral changes and raw potential deflections. Noise-masked images allowed us to delineate regions of convergence of proportional and thresholded responses, revealing active areas where face percepts are extracted from simple visual features. These regions exist within a topological structure of face percept formation in the human ventral visual stream, preceded by category-nonselective activity in pericalcarine early visual areas and in concert with all-or-nothing activity in postperceptual subregions of the ventral temporal lobe. This topological organization suggests a physiological basis for the anatomy of face perception, explaining different perceptual deficits following temporal lobe injury.