While at the Cannes Film Festival last May, I had the unbelievable pleasure of witnessing JR’s documentary Women Are Heroes with friends Meetch, Kyle, and KP. I didn’t even realize that it was JR‘s film; I just saw this crazy-looking French guy with faces on his hoodie who was getting really excited about his work. I was more worried about the “shoody-shoo-shoo” nut vendor on the beach, but I wish I’d known that I was in the presence of a pretty cool guy.
The view at the Cannes outdoor showing of 'Women Are Heroes'
About a month ago, I was reading about some of the more influential people who’ve worked with TED.com when a unique image caught my eye. I recognized the black-and-white picture of a woman on a wall from Women Are Heroes and realized it was JR (winner of the 2011 TED Prize). “This guy’s doing big things,” I thought, and I decided to keep a tab on him.
Back to the present now, I just received an email from JR telling how he’s moving on to another moveable project — this one in the conflict-ridden Tunisian Republic. He’s taken hundreds of photographs of ‘normal’ Tunisian citizens and he’s posting them up throughout the country to give a face to the oppressed. My freshman year, my Global Studies teacher taught me that an important part of curbing tyranny is establishing a human connection between the tyrant and those he’s hurting. I think that JR is trying to do just this with his portraits of human emotion.
Here’s a snippet from JR’s email:
“There is nothing better to understand the weight of traditions and the willingness to change than to post big portraits in the symbolic places of the popular districts and try to explain the concept to people nearby…”
Some of the pictures included:
I hope his plan works and the oppression ends quickly.
A.M.Roth 