Photographer
JR
French artist known for large-scale photographic interventions in public space.
JR is a French artist, photographer, and activist, born in 1983. He began as a graffiti artist and gained international recognition for pasting large-scale black-and-white photographs on buildings, walls, and urban structures, often depicting residents of marginalized communities. His work combines art with social commentary, emphasizing themes of identity, memory, and resistance. JR maintains his anonymity, publicly using only his initials. In 2011, he received the TED Prize, which funded his global participatory project ‘Inside Out’ that encourages people worldwide to paste their portraits as a form of peaceful protest or personal expression.
Selected Works & Key Projects
A source-backed introduction to individual photographs and significant bodies of work.
Key projects
Project · 2007
Face 2 Face
JR’s Face 2 Face placed monumental photographic portraits of Israelis and Palestinians opposite one another on both sides of the separation wall and in several Israeli and Palestinian cities. The pairings presented people who held the same occupations, making likeness, expression, and shared everyday identity the project’s visual argument. JR’s official account describes it as the largest illegal photography exhibition ever organized, with Marco. It merits selection because it concisely establishes the public-photography method central to JR’s work: portraits leave the gallery, acquire political force through their placement, and invite viewers to confront resemblance across a divided landscape.
View source ↗Project · 2008–2014
Women Are Heroes
Women Are Heroes is JR’s long-form portrait project honoring women whom he describes as essential to society yet frequently among the primary victims of war, crime, sexual violence, and political or religious fanaticism. He photographed participants in their daily lives and pasted their faces or eyes at monumental scale in local settings and elsewhere: rooftops in Kibera, buildings across Rio’s Morro da Providência, trains, bridges, and other structures. The project ended in Le Havre in 2014 with 2,600 paper strips installed on a container ship. It merits selection for turning individual testimonies into a mobile, site-responsive photographic public presence.
View source ↗Project · 2011
Inside Out Project
Launched after JR received the TED Prize on March 2, 2011, the Inside Out Project adapts his large-format black-and-white street pastings into a participatory platform. Individuals and groups submit portraits and statements, then install posters publicly through self-organized Actions; the resulting actions are documented, archived, and exhibited online. JR’s official project page reports more than 400,000 participants in over 140 countries during its first eight years, while the project’s own about page reports more than 500,000 participants across 152 countries and territories over the past decade. It merits selection because authorship is redistributed from the artist to participating communities.
View source ↗Selected photographs
2007 · Abu Dis, Jerusalem
28 Millimeters, Face2Face, Separation Wall Security Fence, Close Up, Israeli Side, Abu Dis, Jerusalem
This titled image records a close view of Face 2 Face on the Israeli side of the separation wall/security fence at Abu Dis, Jerusalem. It belongs to JR’s 2007 installation of monumental, face-to-face portraits of Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the wall and in surrounding cities. The photograph merits selection because it specifies the project’s most charged physical support: a barrier transformed into the surface for paired portraiture. Rather than functioning only as a record of a pasted image, it shows how JR made the location inseparable from the photographic proposition of recognition across a division.
Work source ↗2009 · Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
28 Millimètres, Women Are Heroes, Action in Kibera Slum, Train Passage 5
This photograph documents the 2009 Kibera action of Women Are Heroes. JR photographed and interviewed women in Kibera, then returned to cover a train with their eyes while placing the lower halves of faces on corrugated sheets along the slope to the rooftops. For the brief moment when the train passed, the eyes aligned with the smiles and completed the faces. The project page states that 2,000 square meters of rooftops were covered, using water-resistant material that also protected fragile homes during the rainy season. It merits selection because it captures JR’s use of movement, architecture, and photographic fragments to produce an ephemeral completed portrait.
Work source ↗2008 · Morro da Providência, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28 Millimètres, Women Are Heroes, Action in Favela Morro da Providencia, Benedita Florencio Monteiro
This named photograph is part of JR’s 2008 Women Are Heroes intervention in Rio de Janeiro’s Morro da Providência. The project page identifies the favela as a place associated with violence and explains that JR covered its exterior with enormous photographs of local women’s faces and eyes, giving the hill and favela what it describes as a female gaze. The selection is important because it retains the name of one participant, Benedita Florencio Monteiro, within a work that otherwise operates at urban scale. It demonstrates JR’s balance between a specific sitter’s presence and an architectural image visible across the neighborhood.
Work source ↗2022 · Mugombwa, Rwanda
Déplacé·e·s, Thierry #2
Déplacé·e·s, Thierry #2 is a titled image from JR’s 2022 work in Mugombwa refugee camp, Rwanda. The official project page identifies Thierry as an eight-year-old boy living in the camp and states that JR photographed him smiling and running, then printed the image on a 45-meter-long tarp. Children and adults raised the tarp together to make visible the situation of children living in refugee camps; a related Inside Out Action pasted portraits of 126 children around the camp. It merits selection because the named portrait carries an individual child’s image into a collective, performative public photograph.
Work source ↗-
2006
Series
Portrait of a Generation
Collaborating with photographer Marco, JR began this project in the Paris banlieues, installing giant black-and-white portraits of local youth on building facades. The work turned private identity into public spectacle, questioning social stereotypes and giving marginalised communities a powerful visual voice. It established JR's signature method of large-scale street photography and became a precursor to his later participatory projects.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2007
Series
Face 2 Face
On the separation barrier between Israel and Palestine, JR placed oversized frontal portraits of local residents from both sides, creating a dialogue through imagery. The piece confronted viewers with shared humanity amid political division, and was among the first large-scale works to use photography as a form of intervention. It received international press attention and is considered a pivotal moment in his career.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2008
Series
Women Are Heroes
JR traveled to conflict zones and disadvantaged communities in Africa, India, and Brazil, photographing women who are daily victims of violence and poverty. He then pasted their portraits onto walls, roofs, and even trains, giving monumentality to their resilience. The project highlighted women's invisible roles and became an international phenomenon, earning JR recognition for merging art with social activism.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2011
Award
TED Prize
JR received the 2011 TED Prize, awarded annually to an exceptional individual whose work has the potential to spark global change. With the prize's $100,000 grant and his 'one wish', JR launched the participatory art project Inside Out, which invites people worldwide to share their portraits and paste them in public spaces. The prize amplified his influence, propelling his guerrilla street photography into a global movement.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2011–ongoing
Series
Inside Out
Initiated as his TED Prize wish, Inside Out is a large-scale participatory art platform. Individuals and communities submit black-and-white portraits, which are printed on large sheets and pasted publicly, creating collective statements on identity and shared causes. The project has been implemented in over 100 countries, reflecting a shift from the artist's own authorship to mass empowerment. It remains one of JR's most significant and influential undertakings.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2011
Series
The Wrinkles of the City
In this long-running series, JR pastes enormous images of elderly residents onto the architecture of cities, such as Shanghai, Los Angeles, and Havana. The wrink](ed faces are juxtaposed with urban textures, evoking memories and histories embedded in both people and places. It is a meditation on time and identity, with each urban context offering a unique narrative. The series demonstrates JR's ability to adapt his approach to different cultural landscapes.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2015
Photobook
JR: Can Art Change the World?
Published by Phaidon, this monographic book offers a comprehensive overview of JR's key projects, including Inside Out and Women Are Heroes, with essays and interviews. It distills his concept of giving a voice to the voiceless through visual spectacle. The volume is a valuable resource for understanding his artistic philosophy and the social impact of his work, becoming a standard reference for both scholars and fans.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
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2017
Series
The Chronicles of San Francisco
A monumental photomural created with a huge teardrop-shaped scaffolding in San Francisco, this work assembled hundreds of individual portraits of city residents into a single collage covering the waterfront. It addressed themes of community, diversity, and connection in a rapidly changing urban environment. The piece exemplifies JR's ambition to turn population groups into powerful collective imagery on a massive scale.
Source: Wikipedia Verified Sep 4, 2026
Collection
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York holds JR's work in its permanent collection. This reflects the museum's recognition of his integration of photography with large-scale public installations, and his contribution to contemporary visual culture.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
Tate Modern
Tate Modern in London includes JR's photographs in its permanent collection, acknowledging his experimentation with portraiture and public engagement in urban settings.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) holds JR's works, documenting his key role in the intersection of photography, activism, and public art.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Collection
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris has JR's photographs in its collection, highlighting his influence in French and international contemporary photography.
Verified 2026-09-04Wikipedia
Representation
Galerie Perrotin
JR is represented by Galerie Perrotin, which has presented his exhibitions and managed the sales and distribution of his photographic works in the contemporary art market.
Verified 2026-09-04Galerie Perrotin
JR (artist) — Wikipedia (opens a new site)
JR, born in 1983 near Paris, is a French artist who transforms public spaces into global photography stages. This Wikipedia entry offers a comprehensive overview of his development from illegal poster‑pasting in the Paris suburbs to the participatory Inside Out project, with detailed references to major series such as Portraits of a Generation and Women Are Heroes. It documents his exhibitions at institutions like the Louvre, his interaction with communities worldwide, and the reception of his work in both contemporary art circles and mass media. The page presents an evidence‑based narrative that allows readers to verify all specific dates, prizes, and institutional collaborations.
JR: My wish: Use art to turn the world inside out (opens a new site)
In his 2011 TED Prize talk, JR recounts the early street projects that led him from the Paris banlieues to conflict zones, showing how large‑scale portraiture pasted on walls gives a human face to individuals often deemed invisible. He unveils Inside Out, a global participatory art initiative where anyone can submit a portrait that is printed and pasted in a public context. This talk frames his photographic practice as a tool for social change, explaining how the scale and placement of images can reclaim urban spaces, and encourage communities to express their identity.
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