South Korean artist Young-Sung Kim has a very special talent, he can paint photographs. That may sound like a gross exaggeration, but just take a look at what he’s able to produce with a paintbrush, some acrylic and mountains of talent and patience.

　　韩国艺术家金暎性有一项非常特殊的才能，他可以画出“照片”。这听起来可能有些夸张，但只要看看他用画笔、丙烯颜料和满腹才华与耐心绘制的画作，就能说明一切。

　　The old saying, ’I’ll believe it when I see it’, doesn’t really apply to Youn-Sung Kim’s art. You can stare at his incredibly detailed painting for hours and still not be able to tell them apart from high-resolution digital photographs. Kim is so good at what he does that, sometimes, he himself has trouble telling his hyper-realistic paintings from the photos that inspired them. Once, he actually mistakenly sent the press the file of a photo he took, instead of the painting he did, because they looked virtually identical to the naked eye.

　　俗话说，“眼见为实”，但这句话对金暎性的作品并不适用。即使你对这些精致到令人难以置信的画作盯上数小时，仍然无法分辨出它们和高清数码照片的区别。金暎性的超写实作品太过逼真，有时连他自己都难以区分哪张是画作，哪张是参考照片。有一次，他真的错将自己拍的照片文件当成画作发给了媒体，因为从肉眼看来，二者几乎一模一样。

　　The 43-year-old artist, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, but currently lives in New York, recently said that almost everyone who’s seen his paintings has, at one point, asked him if he just prints photos on the canvas. He takes that as a compliment, not an insult.

　　现年43岁的金暎性出生于韩国首尔，现居纽约。他最近表示，几乎所有看过他作品的人都曾问他，是不是把照片印在了画布上。金暎性认为这是一种赞美，而不是侮辱。

　　Most of Kim’s paintings depict small animals interacting with man-made objects, and the artist admits that he has been fascinated by insects, reptiles and amphibians since he was a young boy, keeping them in his room and painting them. Back then, the result of his hard work were nowhere near the level of his most recent works, but that only made him want to become a better painter.

　　金暎性的大部分作品描绘的都是小动物和人造物件之间的互动，而他表示，自己从小就对昆虫、爬行动物和两栖动物十分着迷，会把它们关在房间里，当作绘画对象。虽然那时他辛苦绘制的作品与现在不能相提并论，但这让他想要成为更优秀的画家。

　　It wasn’t easy to paint their structure and color well. It was much harder than I had expected. I promised myself I will train myself at art school when I grow up and paint them perfectly, the artist told Yonhap News Agency.

　　金暎性对韩联社表示：“要想画好它们的结构和颜色，并不容易。难度远远超乎我的想象。我向自己保证，长大后去艺术院校接受培训，把它们完美地画出来。”

　　Unfortunately, his parents didn’t approve of his decision to focus his studies on art, fearing that he would not be able to land a good job. In high-school, their opposition only made Kim rebel even more, defying his parents every chance he got, getting into fights, and basically wasting his time aimlessly. After two years of this, his family finally gave in and allowed him to pursue his dream.

　　不幸的是，金暎性的父母并不赞成他把学习重心放在艺术上，因为担心他找不到好工作。高中时，父母的反对让金暎性更加叛逆，他一有机会就违抗父母、和他们吵架，基本上就是无所事事地虚度光阴。这样过了两年，金暎性的家人终于做出妥协，允许他追求自己的梦想。

　　Kim eventually convinced his parents that they made the right decision. Not only does he get to earn a living doing what he loves most, but he became one of the world’s most highly-regarded hyper realistic painters, earning between $10,000 and $130,000 per artwork.

　　金暎性最终向父母证明，他们的决定是正确的。从事自己最热爱的事业不仅能让他谋生，还让他成为世界上最受推崇的超写实画家。金暎性的作品每副售价在10000至130000美元(约合人民币66000至860000元)之间。

　　Youn-Sung Kim paints for more than 12 hours a day, even on weekends, but, even so, he sometimes spends up to a year on his large scale masterpieces.

　　金暎性每天作画时间超过12小时，甚至连周末也是如此，即便如此，有时他还是要花上一年时间才能完成一幅大型作品。

　　Despite the stunning realism of his paintings, Young-Sung Kim is never completely happy with his work. He scores his artworks on a 100-point scale, and none of his dozens of paintings have ever scored above 90 points. Kim hopes to better himself and get as close to that 100-point mark as possible.

　　尽管金暎性的现实主义画作令人叹为观止，但他本人却从来不觉得百分之百满意。他给自己的几十幅画作打分，满分是100分，没有任何一幅作品超过90分。金暎性希望自己能表现得更好，尽可能接近100分。

　　If you enlarge a photo to observe it, you will realize it is not very realistic, Kim said. "Technology advances at a great speed and it is hard to keep up, but my goal is to outperform a high-definition TV or computer monitor."

　　他说：“如果你把一张照片放大，仔细观察，你会发现它不太真实。科技飞速发展，要想跟上步伐很难，但是我的目标是超过高清电视或电脑显示器。”

　　That’s quite an ambitious goal, but looking at his incredible hyper-realistic artworks, if anyone can do it, it’s this guy.

　　这是一个野心勃勃的目标，但看看金暎性这些惊人的超写实作品，如果说谁能实现这个目标，那一定是他。