Big picture: Blow Job, by Tadao Cern

It is, it seems, not hard to become an overnight photography sensation. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

First, do something silly → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

Passersby clocked the high jinks and dropped in. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

Next, embrace the internet. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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

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

By morning, they’d gone viral. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

The juvenile, slightly smutty title, Blow Job, didn’t hurt. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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

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

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

Another plus for a viral hit. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

Cern is now happily fielding calls from media worldwide. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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. → Photograph: Tadao Cern

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

He set out to entertain a few people, and ended up entertaining quite a few more. Photograph: Tadao Cern