SAM HON

Las Vegas-based artist Sam Hon amazes viewers of his work with his innovative concept of photography.  With a background in commercial photography shooting celebrities, professional athletes, and advertising campaigns, Hon is undoubtedly skilled in his craft.  However, it is his novel approach and unique methodology that have resulted in a truly fascinating body of work.

At first, Hon’s pieces appear as carefully created digital works that have an inexplicable twist.  It is only upon closer inspection that the viewer sees that the works are comprised of hundreds of thousands of female figures. Subtle yet distinguishable, these figures actually compose the image in the piece.

Photographing 12-15 women at a time, Hon takes these images and carefully tweaks them, changing each body and contorting them into distinct configurations.  Using 500,000 bodies, Hon creates layer upon layer, watchful to avoid duplicates of figures.   After a painstaking 700-800 hours of laborious layering, Hon finally produces the final image that he mounts to acrylic.

Once mounted, Hon uses a calligraphy pen with either metallic ink, gold flake or paint to add yet another unexpected element to his work.  Understated yet noticeable, Hon uses a calligraphy pen making deliberate dotted or squiggle-looking lines on the acrylic, for example outlining part of a stiletto heel or tracing a curvature in a skull.  This physical and final touch on his pieces demonstrates the extent of Hon’s artistic vision and thoughtful execution of awe-inspiring pieces.