Art News

Israelis, Palestinians smile for the camera in project by French street artist known only as JR

JERUSALEM (AP).- Large black-and-white portraits have been appearing on bridges, billboards and broken-down buses all over Israel and the West Bank as part of an international project that allows people to turn pictures of themselves into works of art or political statements. The portraits of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are part of a project created by a prize-winning French street artist known only as JR. The project, Inside Out, gets people worldwide to make a statement by having their photo taken and then printed on posters that they can then hang in a place they find significant. Inside Out started in Tunisia in March and has also been to North Dakota in the U.S., Scotland and South Africa. For two weeks, the project had two photo booths in the West Bank Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah and a roaming photo truck that drove around Israel, taking a total of more than 7,000 portraits. It