One new idea for every day in 2011. We're talking big, small, local, international, in action and on the drawing board. Here's today's -- what's yours?
French artist JR began photographing shortly after finding his first camera in a Paris metro when he was 17 years old.
He started taking photos of street art throughout Europe and connecting with its artists through large-format photographs, which he pasted on walls in Paris and Rome in 2003. Three years later, JR set out to meet the younger generation living in the conflict-ridden banlieues of Paris. As riots broke out in these neighborhoods, he pasted large-scale images of the younger generation on buildings and walls (illegally) in upscale Parisian neighborhoods.
His projects have since documented and showcased the faces of Israelis and Palestinians in major Palestinian and Israeli cities, and of women in Asian and African countries. He insists that his projects have no agenda other than to allow neighbors and community members to see each other, face-to-face, through a different lens.
JR recently won the 2011 TED Prize, which is "awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, "One Wish to Change the World," according to the TED website.
JR's wish: INSIDE OUT -- a participatory art project where anyone can upload a portrait and they'll be sent a poster to paste anywhere for the community (and the world) to see.
Previous winners of the TED Prize include Jamie Oliver, Bill Clinton, and Bono. For more information about the TED Prize, check out the TED website, and read more about JR's INSIDE OUT (and upload your own photo) here.
