Now you see me now you don't.

October 11, 2015 1:12 PM

Liu Bolin is the invisible man. He paints his entire body to exactly match the scenery behind him and is camouflaged so well it is sometimes almost impossible to spot him.
More of his art and a TED and previous.
posted by adamvasco (19 comments total)

I went to an exhibit of his work a while back and in person the large format pictures are a lot more impressive than they look on my computer, and quite a few were genuinely stunning.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:48 PM on October 11, 2015

Yes. But I happen to know, he's in the water barrel.
posted by The Bellman at 2:04 PM on October 11, 2015 [7 favorites]

Also, he knows not to stand up.
posted by SansPoint at 2:13 PM on October 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

That's all very well, but can he do it while being chased by wolves?
posted by ZipRibbons at 2:20 PM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

In the first link, my favourite picture is number 24, "Forklifts". Took me a while to figure out where he was. Neat!

But what if he has to sneeze?
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:21 PM on October 11, 2015

there's a chilean artist who does this, but with clothes. i saw her work once - can't remember where now - but was never able to track her down. she seemed to disappear.

but i just googled, and now you can see her work here.

so i guess i need to start looking again. maybe can get a print...
posted by andrewcooke at 4:23 PM on October 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

It seems like a really on point use of photography as a medium. Paint/drawing wouldn't be nearly so impressive because we wouldn't have the same knee-jerk trust in the fidelity of the representation. But if the medium were anything more dynamic than photography (like video or real life), it also wouldn't work. The camouflage works because of the specific angle of the shot. Approaching from the side, from closer or further away, from higher or lower, would all mess up the blending in.
posted by Salamandrous at 4:26 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that's why I like it too, it's a combination of artistic media that wouldn't work if you changed any aspect of it.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:58 PM on October 11, 2015

there's a chilean artist who does this, but with clothes. i saw her work once - can't remember where now - but was never able to track her down. she seemed to disappear.

I can't see what you did there.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:00 PM on October 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

Whoa, these are awesome. I can't even imagine how painstaking painting himself so precisely must be. In some of them it took me a surprising number of seconds to find him. I think the ones where there is a really strong visual focus that's NOT him (like "Forklifts" and some of the ones where he's in front of a mural) are the hardest to find him. What a cool art form. I thought it was interesting that in the one where he's in front of the ship he didn't get the color of the water quite right, which makes sense because the water changes all the time and it'd be hard to predict the exact color it was going to be.
posted by aka burlap at 7:16 PM on October 11, 2015

I feel just like this guy.
posted by newdaddy at 7:24 PM on October 11, 2015

I went to an exhibit of his work a while back and in person the large format pictures are a lot more impressive than they look on my computer, and quite a few were genuinely stunning.

He's only second rate; he's imitating hundreds of photographers who are so good at this that the general public has no idea this is the main theme of their work.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:37 PM on October 11, 2015

There's also a Canadian artist who does this, albeit not very well and mostly for cheap laughs.
posted by p3t3 at 8:57 PM on October 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh this is fun.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:16 PM on October 11, 2015

"You can always tell a Milford man."
posted by Beware of the leopard at 12:57 AM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Liu Bolin is in your kitchen. Right now.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:12 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Veruschka (nsfw)
posted by Ideefixe at 9:02 AM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Liu Bolin is in your kitchen. Right now.
That explains why the floor just yelled at me.
posted by arcticseal at 2:19 PM on October 12, 2015

This is really fun and impressive, thanks for posting it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:06 PM on October 14, 2015