Exclusive Interview: Street Artist JR (TED Award Winner)

It’s not every day that a street artist wins the prestigious TED Prize. In fact, it’s only happened once.

In 2011, the “Ideas Worth Spreading” folks at TED granted this honor to flyposting master JR, who despite the award and acclaim, remains anonymous behind his shades and hat.

JR’s enlarged black-and-white photographs of faces and features have been sold at Sotheby’s and plastered to the walls of the Tate Modern. But as a dyed-in-the-wool graf king, JR’s real work is done in the streets, on the sly.

Among his exploits, he’s managed to curate the largest illegal photo exhibition in the world on the Israeli West Bank Barrier. He’s turned favelas into massive photo galleries, and brought the true, smiling faces of percieved Parisian thugs to Le Marais.  

Per his TED Prize, the guerilla craftraprenuer has been given a chance to change the world, and turn his life’s work on its head. Enter the Inside Out Project, JR’s TED-funded plan to put the power of flyposting into the people’s hands.

With thousands of participants around the world, JR is expanding his reach to make the planet a little more thoughtful, and perhaps a little more fetching.