28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes: Action in Phnom Penh, Peng Panh, 2009. Courtesy JR.
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Since first making a name for himself in the aftermath of the 2005 Paris riots, the French street artist known simply as JR has traveled to impoverished and troubled hotspots around the globe, using his art—guerrilla photo installations pasted onto urban facades—to give a voice to the powerless or to highlight cultural hypocrisy. In 2007, he took portraits of Arabs and Jews, created large-scale prints and pasted them side-by-side throughout Israel and the West Bank, to underscore how similar the people were. In 2008, he traveled to one of Rio de Janeiro’s most neglected “favelas,” took up-close photographs of the eyes of some of the female residents who recently lost family members to violence and plastered them up across a row of hovels. “That favela is in the center of town, but when you look at a map it is like it is not there,” JR said of the project, which he titled “Women Are Heroes.” “The people were saying, ‘Hey, we are there, we are right there in front of you, and you pretend that we don’t exist.’” More recently, JR launched “Inside Out,” a crowd-sourced project that encourages people to take their own portraits and post them to draw attention to a personal cause. For this project, JR is the middleman, making large-scale prints for people to use as they see fit.“The idea is that you have to stand for what you care about,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is easy on Facebook, all these things, to say, ‘I love this,’ ‘I am against that.’ But to stand for your own image in the street? That’s another level.”
The Wrinkles of the City: Los Angeles, West Hollywood, USA (2011). Courtesy JR.
The Wrinkles of the City: Los Angeles, Carl in Silverlake, horizontal, USA (2011). Courtesy JR.
The Wrinkles of the City: Los Angeles, Jim Budman, Venice, USA (2011). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Portrait of a Generation: Ladj Ly, Paris, 19ème arrondissement (2004). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Portrait of a Generation: Byron, Paris, 20ème arrondissement (2004). Courtesy JR.
The Wrinkles of the City: Tuangpet and Her Sunglasses, USA (2014). Courtesy JR.
The Wrinkles of the City: Berlin. Courtesy JR.
The Wrinkles of the City: Berlin. Courtesy JR.
Unframed: Marseilles. Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Face2Face: Nuns in Action, Separation Wall, Security Fence, Palestinian Side, Bethlehem (2007). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Face2Face: Separation Wall Detail, Security Fence, Palestinian Side (2006). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes: Action in the Favela Morro da Providência, Maria de Fatima, Day View, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2008). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes: Action in Kibera Slum, General View, Kenya (2009). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes: Action in the Favela Morro da Providência, Stairway, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2008). Courtesy JR.
28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes: Action in the Favela Morro da Providência, Ilsa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2008). Courtesy JR.
28 Inside Out: Port au Prince, Haiti. Courtesy JR.
28 Unframed: Immigrants in line, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Ellis Island, USA (2014). Courtesy JR.
28 Unframed: Immigrants about to head back to their starting point, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Ellis Island, USA (2014). Courtesy JR.
28 Unframed: Czech grandmother in Ellis Island, Courtesy of the National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument, USA (2014). Courtesy JR.
