Benjamin Von Wong

Benjamin Von Wong (born November 14, 1986) is an online personality and conceptual photographer known for his hyper-realist art style.

He is currently a Wacom Ambassador, Broncolor GenNext Ambassador and Fujifilm X photographer. He is also notable for creating several viral Social Media campaigns, including the most funded GoFundMe campaign which raised over USD $2M for Eliza O'Neill, a sufferer of Sanfilippo syndrome.

Wong is the son of Sing Wong and Jeanette Kho, both Malaysian Chinese immigrants to Canada, where he was born in Toronto on November 14, 1986. He studied engineering and graduated from McGill University in 2008, with a degree in Mining Engineering.

Wong began his career working for Golder Associates as an underground mine planning and design engineer. In 2012, he left engineering to turn his passion for photography into a full-time career.

In 2013, he collaborated with Nikon and musician Andrew Kesler to produce the Nikon Symphony. In 2014, he was one of Flickr's weekly featured artists for his underwater photography taken in the Tulamben shipwreck in Bali, Indonesia.

Currently, he is focused on conservation work and the impact of agriculture on climate change.

Eliza O' Neill Go Fund Me Viral Campaign

In July, 2013, Eliza O'Neill was a 4-year old child diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome Type A, a terminal genetic disease causing death for most sufferers before they reach their teens. Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, had developed a gene therapy, but for clinical trials to take place, $2 million was required.

Wong and D.L. Cade then produced a video, in conjunction with the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation, which highlighted the plight of Eliza O'Neill and other Sanfilippo syndrome sufferers, as part of the Go Fund Me Saving Eliza campaign. The video went viral, breaking all previous Go Fund Me fundraising records, and continues to be the most successful fundraising campaign to date, currently standing at USD $2,023,023.

Wong was hired by cell phone manufacturer Huawei to demonstrate the capabilities of its P8 cell phone camera. The creative brief included taking an image of a live model surrounded by fire, and no use of Photoshop or other image editing software was allowed. In this project Wong combined visual arts with pyrotechnics from his mining engineering experience.

The images captured relied on the P8's ability to shoot long exposures using a stacking technique employed by astrophotographers to capture star trails. This technique relies on continuously shooting images over an indefinite amount of time, which are then stacked and blended to create a single, long exposure image.

• 2015 Saving Eliza: The Video that Could Save a Little Girl s Life... and Thousands More - Shorty Awards Best Use of Video (Nominated)
• 2015 Power of Photography AP Awards 2015 Winner