The idea is to photograph athletes whose identity is blurred behind the “perfect motion” from an instantly recognizable Olympic event: diving, the high jump and the triathlon.
Rather than working with star athletes whose success makes them household names, JR is interested in athletes who are little-known in the eyes of the world yet sublimate the physical language of sport and thus form a distillation of the universality of the Olympic movement: the three athletes chosen, from Sudan, Brazil and France, are not participating in the Olympics this year.
The images obtained are thus being installed in black and white on ultra-large scaffolds which themselves form an integral part of the installation, being the only things capable of supporting such large pictures. Each installation offers a plurality of viewpoints from both up close and far away.
The three Giants are located in the neighborhoods of Flamengo, Botafogo and Barra da Tijuca.
An Inside Out photobooth truck is also taking thousands of portraits during the Olympic moment. After printing posters of cast members from the Opening Ceremony at the Maracanã , the Photobooth truck was located on the Olympic Boulevard, near Praça Maua, and open to the public.
There, the pasted picture of a kid from nearby favela Morro da Providência is playing with hundreds of faces. For its last week of operation during the Olympics, the Photobooth truck is taking portraits of athletes at the Olympic Village. Dozens of stories of participants of the Inside Out project have also been collected at the truck.
