Who is John Hamon – person of interest in Paris?

Who is John Hamon? His poster is all over Paris. Is he a singer? Is he a writer?

John Hamon is an artist. He is a poster artist. To be precise, he posts the picture of himself all over Paris.

I had seen his poster everywhere, and then The New Yorker published an article about Poster Boy – minus the poster. No picture, no photo. Yet, his poster is, literally, everywhere. For the past twenty years, the posters have spread throughout Paris.

The poster, printed on plastic, is John Hamon’s face. He is eighteen years old, and it is a passport photo, taken in the year 2000. From 2001 to the present time, he posts the same poster. It is the only work of art that John Hamon, the artist, has produced.

He sells the poster of himself for two hundred euros.

What started as self-promotion, continues as self-promotion. Today he is thirty-six years old, but the public will only ever see the face of an eighteen-year-old high-school student.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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