When semi-anonymous French artist JR won the $100,000 TED Prize in 2010, The New York Times described him as “a shadowy figure who has made a name for himself by plastering colossal photographs in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world.” They also drew a rather fitting comparison to Robin Hood. For those unfamiliar with the mystery man’s work, JR has shot portraits of the residents of Parisian housing projects; he has photographed the Israelis and Palestinians who live along the Separation Barrier; and most recently, he has captured haunting images of women living in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Kenya, Brazil, India, and Cambodia. It’s the latter tribute that’s the focus of his new book – Women Are Heroes: A Global Project .
By pairing JR’s original portraits with brief interviews with each of his subjects, the images become all the more powerful. While we don’t need to hear the women’s back stories to comprehend the emotion in their faces (“He skips the verbal stage of communication, impacting our memories with his portraits,” as Françoise Docquiert explains in the book’s foreword), the narratives add another fascinating layer to his work. In the same vein, photos that document the gigantic posters being installed by JR’s team of more than 100 volunteers in urban landscapes all over the world, as well as the reactions to the unexpected work from random passersby, are equally revealing.
Click through below for a slideshow of images from the book, and pick up your copy here.
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR
Image credit: © JR from Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR