Art

Benjaman Kyles hyperrealistic portrait and his story

12/18/201211/21/2016 by Viola

Benjaman Kyles hyperrealistic portrait

This portrait of 64 year-old Benjaman Kyle was created with more than two million ink dots by Miguel Endara. Benjaman Kyle was found unconscious, bloody and naked behind a Burger King dustbin in 2004 in Georgia – with no identification or memory of who he was. In fact, the artist wanted to help Mr Kyle, who suffered from retrograde amnesia. Mr Kyle – the only US citizen listed as missing, and he cannot obtain a new social security number, be taken in by any homeless shelters or even take out a library book. His identity has baffled the police and FBI, who cannot find his fingerprints in databases or his face in missing person files. Director John Wikstrom even made a film about him called ‘Finding Benjaman’.

But despite the attempts of friends he has made along the way while trying to find out his story – even appearing on US TV show Dr Phil – Mr Kyle still has no idea about his history and family tree.

It took 138 hours with each dot applied one by one at an average of around four dots per second. ‘Basically, I don’t exist,’ he told ABC earlier this month. ‘I’m a walking, talking person who is invisible to all the bureaucracy. I don’t have any plans for the future. Sometimes I wish I just hadn’t woken up.

‘You’ll find a lot of people who say it’s all bogus, that I’m faking it for whatever reason – but one thing’s for sure – I’m not getting rich out of it. I’m 64. I’m trying to get on with my life as best as I can.’