Portraits of all 42 American Presidents on a half-inch strand of black human hair
 

magnified 1,000,000


a million times

fucking cool!!!

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat.../30/2003221615

Micro art sometimes has great significance
Jin Y. H. art is detailed, innovative and always under 13mm

By Emily Drew
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Sunday, Jan 30, 2005, Page 19
I've never looked at Jin's micro-paintings or micro-carvings in person, and even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to see them -- not without a microscope. Even his biggest micro-painting, a group of portraits of the 42 US presidents on a single human hair, is less than 6mm long.

The Portraits of 42 American Presidents was completed last year in New York and holds the world record for most portraits in the smallest area. Somehow, Jin managed to give each president a vivid expression in a face with a diameter less than 0.4mm. Each face is distinct and recognizable.
Jin has created over 100 micro-paintings and carvings on different-colored hair, ivory and diamonds, and his works extend the traditional Chinese art of engraving and miniscule calligraphy. In an e-mail interview, Jin explained that micro-painting has a long history in China and was done in pictographs on animal bones and tortoise shells. Jin called these Shang Dynasty inscriptions "the earliest mature writing" in China.