JR of Paris...

Of all the street art out there, the one genre that stands out as the most refined is the poster. With posters, world known artists such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey (the creator of OBEY), have been able to do to walls what butter does to a baked potato. Most of their posters are illustrations, but I have discovered a guy from France that has taken it in a new direction.

From the site: www.28millimetres.com –

"The photographer-activist, JR, converts his pictures into posters and transforms our streets into universal open-air galleries. From Los Angeles to Berlin, he keeps his independence and illegal exhibits in the streets, which he considers to be his very own gallery. After his first guerrilla exhibition on the walls of Montfermeil's ghetto's in 2004, JR settled down right in the heart of the district collaborating with Ladj Ly, inhabitant of the ghetto, actor and director from the collective, Kourtrajmé. Armed with a 28 mm lens, JR shot full frame portraits of young people from this neighbourhood and the nearby district of The Forestière (Clichy-sous-Bois). This no frills, straightforward technique allowed them to get very close to this generation. Interviewing them, without restrictions, on the recent events of November 2005. The first portraits were illegally pasted on the east walls of Paris, a district that was once run-down, but has now become a residency for the bourgeois bohemian, who are shielded from the flames. With a certain « in your face » rudeness, they provoke passers-by and question the social and media representation of a generation that people only want to see outside the doors of Paris or on the news..."

The site has a video of the situation and has some amazing photographs of people being people. I definitely thinks it’s worth a peep. LU23