Text by Anneloes van Gaalen

Long before the global media decided to turn their attention on the Paris ghettoes following the riots last fall, French photographer and street artist JR was already working in the desolate urban spaces of the French capital.
The streets are JR’s gallery and source of inspiration, as he takes photos and illegally pastes them all over the urban jungle. His latest project, tentatively titled 28 mm: Portrait of a Trouble Generation, has JR turning the camera on some of the actual rioters. “After the riots,” he says, “I decided to shoot some portraits of these kids from the Clichy and Montfermeil hoods. We always see them on TV with hoodies, starting fires and making trouble. By shooting these very [up-close] portraits I’m giving these kids a face. But I didn’t want to make it too serious, which is why they are making crazy faces and they look like these alien extraterrestrial beings. Of course the irony is that people in Paris really treat these guys as if they were E.T.!”

The young Frenchman’s first book, My Street Journal, is the result of a trip around the world where JR documented street artists and was released last November.