The images of eyes, unblinking and the size of buildings, stared down from the slum on a hill – Rio de Janeiro’s oldest favela, Morro da Providência – and into the heart of the city. They emerged mysteriously, in the summer of 2008, not long after three young men from the community were murdered. The Brazilian Army and a powerful narco-mafia were implicated, and, when the news broke, residents of the favela rioted. For years, they had been living in near total social isolation; taxis did not go up the hill, nor did ambulances, not even the police. Half a dozen buses were destroyed during the riots, but afterward an uneasy calm took hold, and that is when the eyes began to appear.
– Raffi Khatchadourian writes about the street artist JR and his global experiment to help people be seen [subscription required]. Above, a photograph by JR from the series “Women Are Heroes.”