{ feature: 2011 TED prize winner -- JR }

JR is a 27 year-old French artist who developed a passion for photography after finding his first camera in the Parisian subway.

He has recently been granted the 2011 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) prize, which entitles him $100,000 as well as the support from the TED community to carry out his amazing photography projects around the world.

An idea of how prestigious this award is? Previous winners were Bill Clinton, Bono and chef Jamie Oliver.

JR is only known by his initials and has never been seen without his sunglasses. His anonimity has a lot to do with his work. The kind of art JR does is large scale and unconventional -- he photographs the faces of people he meets, turn them into enormous black and white prints and then with the help of volunteers, paste these images on buildings, bridges, walls and other surfaces in the urban environment (think buses and trains even!). It is therefore no surprise that JR is extremely protective of his identity, as mounting of these large images have been considered illegal in countries like China.

Here are two videos on JR's attempt to highlight the dignity of mistreated women around the world:

...when you hear their stories, you're like,"whoa, maybe this person has died inside". But then when you ask her to do faces -- then you can see life.

And then this video of Randy Kennedy from the New York Times having a telephone interview with JR after the announcement of the 2011 TED prize winner:

An image can portray so much; can do so much.

See here, here and here for more details on JR's work (if you are more of a picture person like myself, watch a slideshow of JR's work instead). You can also visit JR's official website :)

inspired in so many ways, xo