Blow Job

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/

With a leaf blower pumping at full tilt in front of you, what would your face look like? Contorted, distorted and, in most cases, hilariously funny, as photographer Tadao Cern found out, and created an internet sensation in the process (18 photos total)

1. It is, it seems, not hard to become an overnight photography sensation. →

2. First, do something silly →

3. In 28-­year-­old Lithuanian Tadao Cern’s case, he hired a leaf blower, invited hip young friends to his Vilnius studio, pointed it at their faces and turned it up to max. →

4. Passersby clocked the high jinks and dropped in. →

5. Next, embrace the internet. →

6. The sitters tweeted snapshots from their phones, and Cern posted his shots on Facebook, encouraging his mates to do the same. →

7. Two days later, he uploaded them to his website, which was immediately blogged about by a pair of widely read local creatives, boredpanda.com →

8. By morning, they’d gone viral. →

9. The juvenile, slightly smutty title, Blow Job, didn’t hurt. →

10. This series has the same appeal as Apple’s Fat Face phone app, which adds double chins and hamster cheeks to people’s faces at the touch of a screen. →

11. Morphing our faces into grotesque versions of reality is a guaranteed laugh – just ask the person who invented the fairground hall of mirrors. →

12. Shot against a plain white background, the portraits are part freak show, part science study, part – if you squint – modern art. →

13. Of course, leaf blowers are less readily available than an app, which makes them more of a rarity. →

14. Another plus for a viral hit. →

15. Cern is now happily fielding calls from media worldwide. →

16. But here’s the downside to instant fame: you may get to spend the next five years trying to convince people that there’s more to you than a prank with a leaf blower. →

17. Cern, who has built up a body of work since turning pro two years ago, seems unconcerned, though. →

18. He set out to entertain a few people, and ended up entertaining quite a few more.