J R set up a photo truck in Times Square, which is taking people’s portraits and instantly printing them on giant posters. People can take the poster home or paste it to the ground with buckets of wheat paste and brushes provided for them.
JR was quoted in an article in NY Times saying,
“It’s an interesting thing about New York,” J R said in an interview on Friday, “that this is a very busy city, yet so many New Yorkers have come and given their time to the project, to taking their pictures, to pasting them and to being part of an exchange. And if you look at Times Square, you see that there is advertising everywhere, so where in other cities we put the portraits on the walls, and even on roofs, here we put them on the ground. So in a way, it’s people versus advertising. It’s people, amid all this advertising, saying, ‘We exist’ and ‘We’re together. ”NY Times
A few of the portraits are projected on the electronic advertising screens in Times Square, taking the place of some Advertisements.
JR's request: to assemble a global Facebook, in which people have their pictures taken — or send their own portraits to J R by e-mail — as part of what he hoped would become the world’s largest participatory art project.
About 130,000 people have contributed their images. and the number is still growing. It's amazing that this many people are willing to contribute in the name of art. I find it a fantastic and beautiful thing! Times Square is so full of surprises every single day.
JR's mission to advertise people is such an inspiring and powerful message. It's so true that advertising has taken over our lives, and we forget about the people in our society. By putting the portraits on the ground, people have no choice but to look on what they are walking on. It is a great eye-opener, and a creative way to get a point across.
