Giant Walker on the Streets of New York

This week, the New York Times Magazine embraced street art as they unveiled ‘A Walker in the City,’ a special large-scale art installation on FlatIron Plaza created by JR for their ‘Walking New York’ issue. The French artist, known for putting up giant photographs of people on urban surfaces around the globe, pasted a 150 foot long image of Elmar Aliyev, a 20 year old Azerbaijani immigrant waiter. Taking a cue from his recent Ellis Island piece where he pasted historical photographs of immigrants in an abandoned hospital, JR selected Aliyev as his model out of 15 immigrants because he liked the way he swung his arms while he walked. According to him, “We pasted Elmar…people walked on him all day and no-one really noticed him. Today he is on the cover of The New York Times Magazine that comes out this Sunday…while everyone else is in the shadow.” Check out photographs of the other 14 candidates spread around NYC’s 5 Boroughs at #WalkingNewYork.