Architecture + Photography
So there we were, going six hundred and fifty miles per hour at thirty thousand feet in the air on a recent flight when we nearly spilled our martinis all over ourselves. Turbulence you ask? Nope – it was our eyes making contact with some incredibly provocative photography. We had never before seen the work of JR, the anonymous and elusive Parisian photographer known for infiltrating dangerous slums around the world to install his large scale portraits. Perhaps it was simply the shock of finding something so piercing in an in-flight magazine. But the more we read and researched about the work, the more fascinating this bridge between architecture and photography became. Work of this magnitude doesn’t need us and our words getting in the way of it – so we’re going to keep our traps shut, show the work and leave you with one question: Why does this work make the built-environment a better place?
15 Comments
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mollycameron.com » Blog Archive » Waiting to hurt. — October 9, 2009 @ 9:18 am
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Twitted by _AADB_ — October 9, 2009 @ 9:27 am
By Gus, October 9, 2009 @ 8:02 am
His work is infectious because of the cross-referencing. The photos give the slums a face, and when they’re posted all over Paris it forces people to acknowledge this.
By Richter, October 9, 2009 @ 8:05 am
I’m not convinced this work does make the built-environment a better place. I find the photos engaging but as far as making significant improvements… I give it a pass.
By andrew, October 9, 2009 @ 8:53 am
Might be off the topic of the photography, bot not the subject matter.
“Child of the Dark.” (“Quarto de Despejo” in Portuguese) by Maria Carolina de Jesus
“Shadow Cities” by Robert Neuwirth (Check out his TED lecture)
and
“Hope: Human and Wild” by Bill McKibben
are three really great books that do in writing what these images do visually.
Teddy Cruz in San Diego and David Leatherbarrow at UPenn are architect/scholars I’ve heard address issues relating to slums and squatters. (TC a lot and DL a little).
Any recommendations?
By KJ, October 9, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
I’m always grateful for the new material you guys bring to the table, so don’t get me wrong. I just don’t consider plastering photos of eyeballs on the sides of buildings as art. It seems like a publicity stunt.
By Jon, October 9, 2009 @ 2:45 pm
What is the deal with “anonymous artists” all the sudden? It seems like a marketing gimmick to automatically make them seem edgy and raise their stock – independent from the work their actually doing (or not doing).
By Sam, October 9, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
I’ve actually been to the Kibera slums in Kenya and they are incredibly dangerous -even the police won’t go in there. Just getting work of this scale installed at all says a great deal about JR’s relationship with the people in these communities.
By Keiser, October 9, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
I think the proof is in the pudding on this one. In the video – the community residences are active and involved, everyone seems charged and delighted with the installation. For me, that is the success of this work.
By Beth R, October 9, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
Any idea if the work is left in place, or is it all taken down after the “show”?
By CJC, October 9, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
I’m diggin it – thanks for showing.
By sandy, October 9, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
incredible. thanks for posting this.
i’ve never heard of this artist, but i would have to say JR’s art definitely enhances its context. there’s something unexpected and delightful about the chosen canvas and subject matter of his work. very ordinary/unassuming surfaces draped with an exaggerated scale of eyes and faces…it simultaneously makes you feel small and enormous.
it reminds me (in a less controlled manner) the pieces in chicago’s millennium park: the lcd fountains and the bean. both are hot spots in the park. people can’t get enough of them. there’s something undeniably engaging about the human face, particularly the eyes. whether they’re your own or someone else’s.
By Cory, October 11, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
I find the work to be spectacular and that’s all it needs to be in order to make the built environment a better place, imho.
By schnooker, October 11, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
This work is so cool it makes me want to go paint a bunch of eyeballs on the side of my house.
By Cyndy Jurney, October 15, 2009 @ 7:22 pm
Very intriguing. Is not the fundamental idea of art to bring into focus what would otherwise be overlooked? How many times do we avert our eyes from conditions that,, if not by the statistical gods of the universe we would not be placed in at birth or end up in by some twist of fate?