Women Are Heroes - Action in the Favela Morro da Providencia, stairs

The images of the women came from JR’s Women are Heroes project, where he highlighted the challenges and violence faced by women in troubled countries across the world, from Sierra Leone and Cambodia to Brazil, Morocco and India. Armed with a 28mm camera, JR captured the faces, smiles, frowns and frustrations of women the world over, and uses these images to create an open-air exhibition in the women’s own communities. In Rio, apart from an exhibition at the Casa França-Brasil cultural centre, the images JR captured are now key parts of Providencia’s landscape.French photographer JR was drawn to Providencia following the controversial deaths of three young men amid alleged collusion between Brazilian soldiers and a drugs gang. The unique art installation that followed was from JR’s vision that the dead needed to see and be seen. The next phase of this installation evolved to more telling images on even larger structures — women from the community were immortalised in beautifully taken black and white images, and are emblazoned onto walls, rooftops and vehicles all over Providencia.

Signed on the right side corner (stamp and lead)