JR – 28 Millimètres, Women Are Heroes – Swimming Pool

JR - 28 Millimètres, Women Are Heroes - Swimming Pool, Intercontinental Hotel, Verticale, Monrovia, Liberia, 2008/2016

In February 2008, JR went to Liberia for the Women Are Heroes project. His intention is to underline the pivotal role of women in society and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting their portraits. After his first trip during which he shot the portraits, JR went back in the region for the posting. He was much awaited. Followed by a crowd of kids, he started to post the portraits. This was the swimming pool of the Intercontinental Hotel in Monrovia. It was a luxury hotel and then became a refuge for squatters during the civil war. These eyes are Haya’s. Her life changed completely during the war.

When JR posted the pictures of these women, the reactions were immediate, raw, and sometimes brutal. Why faces? Why women? Did they do something special? Why here? Why is it in black and white, don’t they have colours in France? Are these women all dead? Those who understood the project explained and shared it with the others.