I came across this political-art project through Rebecca Walker’s Twitter page…The project is called... Women Are Heroes...
Have you seen this?It's amazing...
It takes my breath away...
It makes me cry...
About Women Are Heroes:
The work is the creation of an anonymous French photo- grapher who goes by the initials JR.Back in 2004, he started taking pictures with a camera he found in the subway.
In 2008, he started documenting the stories of women through his photographs…
And he converted these pictures into huge posters…
And trans- formed open spaces into outdoor photo galleries using decaying walls…
The sides of buses...
The exterior facades of homes…
Trains…
Tin roof tops.
In 2008, he photographed women in the most violent neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The women in these photos lost family members to clashes between local police and drug traffickers.
According to his website, JR explains that by photographing these women he intends to…
“underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.”
He has since taken photo- graphs of women in Kenya, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Liberia…Countries where “the violence suffered by women.. is the extreme expression of discriminations.”
Through his photographs of these women he conveys…
“their force, their courage and their noble struggle: first to live, then to exist.”
As I look at these photographs, I see the stories...
I see the stories that these women are otherwise made to believe should not be spoken.
I see strength...
Courage...
Vitality.
I see how resilient qualities manifest out of the void caused by their anguish.
I can read in the facial features and expressions of these women...
Stories that require something more visceral and more profound than words.
The public display of their images demand witnessing...
Witnessing of their stories...
Witnessing of their sacrifice...
Witnessing of their womanhood...
Witnessing of their heroism.
When you get a chance, please watch the following video clip:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4lv1b_trailer-women-are-heroes_creation
