JR is the pseudonym of a French photographer and street artist. JR stands for the initials of JR's first name, which is Jean-René. JR works at the intersection of photography, street art, filmmaking and social engagement. Over the last two decades he has developed multiple public projects and numerous site-specific interventions in cities all over the world: from buildings in the slums around Paris, to the walls in the Middle East and Africa or the favelas of Brazil. His recent solo exhibition, JR: Chronicles at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, USA (2019) has since traveled to Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2021), Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2021), Kunsthalle Munich, Germany (2022) and Lotte Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2023). Other solo projects include Les Enfants d'Ouranos at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill (2023), The Chronicles of San Francisco at SFMOMA, San Francisco (2019) and Momentum, la mécanique de l’épreuve at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2018).

JR is also the director of three full-length documentaries: Women Are Heroes (2011); the Academy Award-nominated Faces and Places (2017), co-directed by Agnès Varda; and most recently, Paper and Glue (2021).