JR. This alias reveals the humour as much as the acute awareness this photographer has of his actions. To adopt the initials of the archetype of a despicable character from the television series «

Dallas », symbol of capitalism at the height of its most egotistical form, is to want to challenge the system on its own territory, by undermining it from the inside, like an alien you’ve allowed to inhabit you, without immediately comprehending what has just happened, and which takes on a kind of power, forcing you to be influenced by its message.

He was a graphic artist first. It was in photographing his friends, spray paint cans in hand, then pasting them up on Paris walls as an unauthorized exhibit, that JR became a photographer, a poster designer, an activist – all at the same time, a voice of his time. In 2005 when the Paris suburbs of Clichy sous Bois and Montfermeil were in a state of unrest, and other French suburbs followed in their wake, the world media amplified their revolt. JR, 22 years old, had grown up in a « calm » Parisian suburb made up of a mix of houses and sprawling apartment units, and felt there existed a general injustice towards its youth. He also experienced the apprehension and excitement of living close to Paris but without access to its codes, travelling only to the central neighbourhoods of Auber or Les Halles. In Clichy sous Bois and Montfermeil, with a wide angle lens, he took a group portrait of local teenagers grimacing. His was an ironic portrayal of what the media otherwise proposed of an enraged and asocial suburban youth population. The photo sessions turned into such major laughing sessions that the pictures resulting smiles were contagious.

Then came the stroke of genius. Finding it vain to exhibit a beautifully framed photo for a handful of viewers, he revived his natural affinity to the public domain and began printing large posters, accentuating his subjects’ presence. Their aura was intense and their laughter almost audible. JR had established the basis of a process that he would continue to improve upon, a system that would develop politically and universally. He refined the way he displayed his work, increasingly won over the populations he defended, and asserted his freedom and auto financing. His project is a delight because he isn’t trying to produce a work of art but is creating, uniting communities, raising awareness.

JR expands photography’s limits. At a time when art collectors are obsessed with print quality, when the label « artist » provides added value to a work above all, JR has no time for conventions. Photography is flexible, he stretches it into all forms. The poster is his medium, the centre of his work. He considers himself a good photographer, which while seemingly irrelevant, producing pictures sold in galleries, his main source of financing. Press and internet contacts are now solicited to publicize the event. Without realizing or intending it, he is part of a lineage that began with Claude Bricage and his « photograph the city» project in the early 80’s: photographer and militant, Bricage created one of the first initiatives in the Seine Saint-Denis department, offering local youth to photograph the home environments. Their pictures (120 × 180 cm) were then exhibited on city walls. That project spawned many imitators.

Martin Parr provoked a scandal in London with his « Sign of the times » series about English taste. The photos showed British interior home designs, their owners’ comments displayed on street and subway billboards without explanation. Guy le Querrec publicized the « Banlieues Bleues » jazz festival taking place in the Parisian suburb of Seine Saint Denis once again, with a 4 × 3 meter poster in the subway. Initially blank, he added small daily photos of festival performances.

As a former director of Magnum Photos, I was twice inspired by this method. The day after the Chinese army’s intervention of Peking’s Tien Anmen Square in 1989 that forbid all media coverage, together with Stuart Franklin we offered Amnesty International the famous photo of a person in a white shirt blocking the tanks for their poster that was then widely distributed. During the conflict in Bosnia, where the Serbs had been holding siege in Sarajevo for several months, and where the press was using some shocking methods of coverage, I suggested to Gilles Peress that we put wrap Paris with 3 × 8 meter posters two of his pictures of Sarajevo residents and the caption « Sarajevo 300, 000 hostages ».

« September 11th » would bring one of the most moving initiatives in which both amateur and professional photographers would share their Twin Towers pictures, some of the earliest digital pictures, thumb-tacked to walls or hung from local shop ceilings. « Here is New York » (« Voici New York ») became a sort of temple, a memorial gathering but also a place to talk and sell low-priced photos to raise money in support of victims’ families. And finally, tirelessly, peacefully, but with rage, the Israelien, David Tartakover, transformed news pictures, with the approval of their authors, into a poster denouncing perpetrators of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, displayed in one window of a Tel Aviv café. This is a far cry from commercial art and from the press but is a veritable alternative for providing public information. The message must be simple, but it cannot be open to misinterpretation, not reframed or given captions or titles that modify its meaning, often a temptation to the press. By developing his methods and applying them the world over, JR has tried to directly involve the targeted populations in the production of his installations. In exchange for corrugated iron used by the inhabitants of Kenyan shanty towns and also the physical support on which he mounts his portraits there, and for waterproof canvas to be used as reinforcement for shelters in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, he asks only that the inhabitants keep watch over the installations bearing their image, the time of their fleeting existence.
He is not a photographer of events. He forces us to look at phenomena that habit and resignation make us lose touch with on a daily basis, their absurd violence having become an almost routine part of our existence. His most recent combat to attract our attention to the role of women in societies where they are not equal to men, is conveyed by a look. The portrait simplified to the extreme. Questioning looks, profound, benevolent but serious. The deeper you examine JR’s work, the clearer his message is. He gets our attention with a spectacular installation and overcomes us with those looks that question our conscience for a long time after we’ve seen them.

In photography he is to the years 2000 what Nan Goldin was in the 80’s. He isn’t trying to be a virtuoso amongst photographers. He aims to be a witness of society with each project. By using posters installed in the very landscape where the crisis is occurring, he invents a different kind of communication tool, as Nan used film projection in cafés.

JR is not seeking glory. He prefers anonymity and the group adventure his projects generate. He handles humour with courage, manipulates the press, internet and the art world to serve his purpose, which has the beautiful value of being purely political, even if this word scares his generation. He is someone who takes action, he forces us to see his point of view, someone who is committed.

François Hébel Director of Rencontres d’Arles, 29 September 2009