JR

Two letters to summarize the phenomenon that has hit photography in the XXI century. Two letters that cover the walls everywhere around the world, from the Favelas of Brazil to the Upper East Side of New York. Only two letters, that mean a lot: J and R, JR.

From his real name Jean-René, JR is a young photographer born in Paris in 1983. He has done many street art projects, all of them monumental, whether by their meaning or by their surfaces.

In the beginning, it was through graffiti that the artist entered the world of street art, but in 2001 he found a camera in the Subway in Paris and immediately started taking pictures. Everything that surrounded him became a source of inspiration, a phenomenon that will persevere and develop.

JR's dinstictive artistic touch lies in his creative process, gigantic photo collages depicting individuals in black and white. They are giant in size and in technique. To create his wall projects, the photographer surrounds himself with a team of 15 specialists, from visual artist to performers.

His predilection for large format can not be explained only by an aesthetic choice, it is also a way for the artist to draw attention. This way everyone can see it, there is no need to go to the museum to be surrounded by works of art. In order to appeal to the publics' emotions, JR uses his public as the principal part of his works. His portraits are not without foundation, they approach current societal issues and reflections about our identity, a recurrent subject on the works of the artist.

In 2008, he is remembered for what he did at the brazilian Favelas "28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes" where he pasted huge photos of the faces and eyes of local women all over the outside of the favela covering whole blocks of houses with striking faces. A year before, the photographer had already made a remarkable work with "Face 2 Face" where portraits of Palestinians and Israelis were pasted face to face on the dividing wall between the two cities in conflict.

Recently, it is the Pantheon and the Louvre where JR attacked. In 2014 he dressed the Pantheon with portraits of passersby, continuing with his artistic line but with a hint of demagogy what he was blamed for. Finally, in 2016, he did his finest trick, he made the Louvre pyramid dissapeared, making us dream of a better and crazier future.