JR on a journey: Man, the street and the world as one gigantic outdoor gallery

JR on the move: the ultimate representative of the modern, exploratory artist.

French artist and photographer JR (born 1983) represents the ultimate form of the modern, exploratory artist. He began his career as a completely ordinary, anonymous graffiti painter in the suburbs of Paris. The turning point came when he found a cheap camera in the Paris metro. He began documenting his friends' graffiti work and pasting photocopies of the images onto the city's brickwork. This was the start of a travel-based artistic career that has now spanned the globe.

JR calls himself a “photograffeur” . His artistic travel concept is as simple in its basic idea as it is monumental in its execution: He travels to places in the world that the media and the outside world often forget, demonize or overlook. At the destination, he spends time getting to know the local community, photographing the residents up close in black and white, printing the images out in gigantic formats and pasting them onto houses, roof structures, train decks, shipping containers and political walls.

Art outside the safe walls of the gallery

While traditional artists exhibit in white, sterile galleries in New York, London or Paris, JR takes his art directly to the most complex and conflict-ridden hubs of the globe. For JR, the journey is a way to break down cultural differences and force us to see the individual person behind the headlines we encounter in the news.

1. Favelas of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) – Women Are Heroes

In 2008, JR traveled to Brazil and settled in Morro da Providência – Rio de Janeiro’s oldest and one of the city’s most troubled favelas, heavily affected by drug crime and police violence. Instead of photographing the violence, he focused on the local women who held the community together.

He photographed their eyes and faces, covering an entire hillside of makeshift houses and staircases with the giant prints. When viewed from below or from the air, the favela was seen as a series of strong women’s eyes gazing out over Rio de Janeiro. The project transformed an excluded slum into an international work of art, teaching travelers that behind the favela’s reputation lie ordinary mothers, grandmothers, and daughters.

2. The US-Mexico Border (Tecate) – kikito

In 2017, when the debate over the US-Mexico border wall was at its height, JR traveled to the Mexican border town of Tecate. There, he erected a giant wooden scaffolding on the Mexican side of the fence.

On the scaffolding, he mounted a giant printed image of a one-year-old Mexican boy named Kikito. The image was angled so that from the American side it appeared as if the little boy was standing and peering curiously over the massive border wall into the United States. The artwork stripped away the political rhetoric and replaced it with an innocent child’s view of the world. When the exhibition ended, JR organized a giant picnic across the border fence, where Mexicans and Americans ate together at one long table that spanned the border.

3. Kibera in Nairobi (Kenya) – The roofs that kept the rain out

In 2009, JR went to Kibera in Nairobi, one of Africa's largest slums. There he discovered that the residents' houses suffered from the heavy rains because the roofs were made of perforated tin and cardboard.

JR printed his giant black-and-white photographs of local women’s eyes on waterproof vinyl instead of paper. Together with the residents, he covered the roofs of an entire neighborhood and train cars on the local railway with the vinyl prints. The project spectacularly combined monumental art with direct practical help: the artwork also served as a tight roof, protecting the families from the monsoon rains.

4. Louvre and Venice – Reinterpretation of European classics

JR doesn’t just travel to the world’s hotspots; he also goes to Europe’s most classic cultural cities to turn history upside down. In 2016, he “hid” the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris by covering it with a photo print that matched the facade of the museum complex behind it. In Venice, he has taken over historic palaces and canals to highlight climate change and mass tourism.

The Visual Nomads: Aesthetic Travel and the Search for the Perfect Light

Alongside JR and the street art movement, the digital age has created a whole new category of traveling artists: the visual nomads . These are photographers, videographers, and aesthetic explorers for whom travel is driven by a unique visual storytelling technique and the pursuit of moods.

Tokyo's neon nights and Iceland's raw nature

This generation seeks certain visual aesthetics – what is today called “Aesthetic Travel” :

• Cyberpunk and Neon Lights in Asia: Photographers are flocking to Asia's megacities—especially Tokyo , Seoul , and Hong Kong —exploring narrow alleys in pouring rain to capture the reflections of neon signs, layers of steam from street food stalls, and the city's futuristic architecture.

• Minimalist and dramatic nature: The journeys are equally directed towards Nordic and volcanic landscapes such as Iceland , the Faroe Islands and Lofoten in Norway . Here, the faint northern lights, black sand beaches, mighty waterfalls and mist-shrouded mountain peaks are sought out.

The journey here is about patience – waiting for the right light (the golden hour / the blue hour) and conveying the magnificence of nature to a modern generation of travelers.

Who traveled before JR?

One of the great role models for the modern, exploratory artist could be the world-famous French artist Paul Gauguin , who traveled to Denmark from Paris, married a Dane, started a large family, then wandered again to Brittany – alone, and then to Tahiti and then longed away even further. Geographical and family escapism with an artistic bonus of dimensions.

Experience the modern visual travel culture today

If you want to experience the world through the lens of today's young artists, head to the creative neighborhoods and landscapes of cities where street art and visual storytelling flourish.

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Favela Art Tours

• Morro da Providência: Take a guided, respectful, and safe Favela Street Art Tour . Here you can still see the remains of JR's groundbreaking photo projects as well as a wide range of more recent murals created by local and international street artists. Tour proceeds go directly back into the local community.

2. Tokyo, Japan: Shinjuku & Akihabara Night Photowalks

• Omoide Yokocho & Kabukicho (Shinjuku): Head out after dark in the rain with your camera or smartphone. The ultra-narrow alleys of Omoide Yokocho (“Memory Lane”) near Shinjuku station are filled with the smoke of yakitori grills and glowing paper lanterns. It’s the ultimate mecca for modern night and street photography.

3. Berlin & Lisbon: Europe's Street Art Capitals

• East Side Gallery (Berlin): The longest preserved section of the Berlin Wall (1,3 km) stands today as a gigantic outdoor gallery with iconic murals created by artists from around the world just after the fall of the wall in 1989.

• LX Factory (Lisbon, Portugal): A disused 1800th-century industrial complex in the Alcântara neighborhood under the 25 de Abril Bridge, it has now been transformed into a vibrant creative hub filled with giant street art murals, photography studios, independent bookstores and design boutiques.