The genre of street photography is thankfully alive and thriving within the international photoblogging community. However, how many of us have taken our art back to the streets, literally? There has been a recent buzz going around about an unlikely street photographer in Paris. He is known only by his initials, JR, who is also a graffiti and performance artist. Disturbed by media distortion of the youth in last year's suburban housing riots, JR started posting pictures of local youth illegally on buildings in Paris. He would print out the images he took poster size and paste them onto walls near where he took them. Before the riots the authorities viewed him as a nuisance, afterwards they gave him an exhibition in Paris to perhaps help show empathy. His exhibition then helped to inspire another that included photographers such as William Klein, Marc Riboud, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Sarah Moon who shot in the same areas that JR had originally.

Now JR has a book out, and a photoblog sharing his work as well as his journey.