JR is a photographer who works on the borders of art and activism. To him the streets are one big art gallery and the city is the playground for gigantic shows. Since 2001, from Paris to Los Angeles via Montfermeil-Clichy-sous-Bois in France or Jerusalem, JR has presented many of his giant pasted photos in illicit street shows.
 
JR began photography in 2000 and started by photographing graffiti artists in action, then decided to invest himself the walls of his city, Paris.
In 2004, he worked on his 28 millimeters series, for which the first chapter was called Portrait of a generation even made the New York Times cover. The giant portraits of young people from the Paris suburbs were then shown in their very own towns and then brought back, to raise consciousness, to the center of Paris on European House of Photography Art Center and on the Paris City Hall.