The French street artist JR has been working on immigration projects for some time now. Last spring, he was approached by the New York Times Magazine, to create a project together. JR chose and photographed 15 immigrants who arrived in New York from all over the world, within the last 365 days. He photographed them walking in the city, all of them unnoticeable and living in the shadows.
On the night of April 11, JR’s team started pasting the image of Elmar, 20 years-old who came from Azerbaijan, on Flatiron plaza in New York City. The image was 150 feet high. People walked on him all day, but no one really noticed him.
A few days later, Elmar was on the cover of the New York Times magazine while everyone else was in the shadows.
See a time-lapse video behind the making of the above cover.
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