Born in Germany and now based in Berlin after more than a decade in New York, Niemann is best known for Abstract Sunday, a series that began as a weekly column in The New York Times and has since gathered more than a million followers on Instagram. The idea behind it is simple: he takes a random object, turns it under the light, and waits to see if it starts to look like something else. Most of the time it doesn't, but every so often a pencil turns into a megaphone, or the pages of an open book become a cat's whiskers.
When that happens, he rarely has to change much. A small addition, a different angle, or a change of scale is usually enough, and the humor comes from how obvious the new meaning feels once you spot it. Niemann has said this has less to do with a special gift than with stamina and a willingness to stare at an object longer than most people would.
