CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF TURNING THE WORLD INSIDE OUT
MARCH, 2ND 2026
Celebrating 15 Years of Turning the World Inside Out
On March 2nd, 2011, JR posed a question: What if we gave everyone the tools to share their stories, their faces, their truths, as works of art? Not in museums or galleries, but on the streets and walls of their own cities. What happened next, no one could have predicted.
From a simple art experiment, Inside Out quickly evolved into a global movement – the people’s art project.
Before the word ‘selfie’ became everyday vocabulary and social media revolutionized how photos and messages could be shared around the world, the Inside Out Project allowed individuals from even the most remote communities to share their stories on the web through portraiture.
Group Action: Women and the Soil, Patalekhet, Nepal, 2011, 45 Portraits
Today, nearly 600,000 people across 154 countries and territories have joined the Project: from the favelas of Brazil, to the Sahara desert, the bustling Times Square, the heart of Paris, all the way to the North Pole, and even remote Island Nations in the Pacific Ocean now facing threats of rising sea levels.
Even during the global pandemic, communities worldwide mobilized to stay united while social distancing kept us physically apart, by bringing people together through massive installations comprised of hundreds and thousands of portraits to give life back to the streets.
Group Action: Mental Health Awareness Project, Lagos, Nigeria, 2022, 1,171 Portraits
With thousands Actions, people from all walks of life have inspired their communities to share their ideas and perspectives on belonging, humanity, and the power of feeling seen, in places where these conversations are hardly possible yet most needed, such as conflict zones, refugee camps, retirement homes, classrooms, hospitals, and even a maximum-security prison.
Group Action: Inside Out Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico, 2018, 12 Portraits
All these years, the Inside Out Project has remained a living, growing, collective archive of what people care about, fight for, and dream of. It has captured moments of solidarity, resistance, grief, joy, and hope– mapping out in real time the histories, emotions, and human geography of our world, one portrait at a time.
Group Action: Toma Artística por la Integración: El futuro será Juntxs, Bogotá & Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia, 400 Portraits
We are so grateful for all your support and participation over the last fifteen years. We could not be here without you! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for carrying the spirit of the Project.
We have a year full of celebrations awaiting us, and we are excited to continue building the Project together. You can help spread the mission of Inside Out by creating your own Group Action today. I look forward to the next decade as we keep collaging the stories of our neighbors near and far with the power of paper and glue.
Photobooth Action: Pracificar: Mudar a praça para mudar o mundo, Belo Horizonte, Brasil, 2025, 183 Portraits
Thank you for helping us turn the world Inside Out!
With love,
JR & the Inside Out Team