He exhibits in total freedom, on walls around the globe attracting the attention of those who don’t usually visit museums or galleries. His work combines art and action, commitment and freedom , identity and experience.

His career started in 2001, when he found a camera in the parisian subway and decided to use to photograph those who express themselves on the surfaces of the walls, in the streets around Europe. He observed and listened to the people he met during his trip across Europe and decides to share their life stories on the public streets, undergrounds and rooftops of Paris, for everyone to see.

JR creates an invading art form, spreading across the buildings of parisian suburbs , on the walls of the Middle East, on the broken bridges of Africa or in the favelas of Brazil. During the pasting sessions, entire communities join him and participate in the artistic project. In Brazil for example, children of the favelas became artists for one week. In these artistic acts, no scene separates the actors from the spectators.

After local exhibitions in the cities in which JR’s subjects come from, his photographies travelled from NY to Berlin, from Amsterdam to Paris, where everyone can interpret them in the light of their own knowledge and experience.

In 2011, JR wins the TED prize in which he asks « Can art change the world ? ». Through his new concept INSIDE OUT, a participative and international art project enabling the people to change the way certain parts of our world looks. They receive their portraits printed by JR’s team and then paste them wherever they fin dit meaningful, therefore expressing themselves, their ideas, their projects and sharing their own view of the world.

All the actions are documented, archived and for shown for everyone to see on the website  www.insideoutproject.net. Since March 2011, more than 155 000 portraits have been sent out across the world, in more than 100 countries.

As part of INSIDE OUT,  the photobooth bring the printing machines and the project to the streets, inviting everyone to come and participate on the spot and for free. Tens of thousands of portraits have been printed out from these roaming photobooth , travelling cross the globe and …at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, several cities in Israel and Palestine, à l’Emirati Expressions of Abu Dhabi, in the parisian Perrotin gallery, at Times Sqaure in NY, and soon in Amsterdam and London.

The anonymity of JR and the absence of comments accompanying these gigantic pastings – create a vast space for questions and  interpretations for the passers-by, which is the very essence of his work.

*image (left)
PoliceStation
© JR