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Portraits of Bed-Stuy Residents Plastered on Walls of Community Garden

By Camille Bautista | August 10, 2015 5:24pm
 Large, black-and-white portraits of Bed-Stuy residents are pasted on the garden's walls as part of the Inside Out Project.
Large, black-and-white portraits of Bed-Stuy residents are pasted on the garden's walls as part of the Inside Out Project.
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Robyn Twomey

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Some friendly faces on Halsey Street just got a little more familiar.

Volunteers and community members pasted dozens of poster-sized portraits of Bed-Stuy residents along the walls of one community garden as part of the street art series, the Inside Out Project.

After staring at the blank walls across from her Halsey Street home, photographer Robyn Twomey said she sought to spruce up the lot between Ralph and Patchen avenues.

“It was a celebration of the block and all the people that live on it, and how the garden can provide the perfect exhibition space for community uplifting and morale,” Twomey said.

“It’s focusing on neighborhood pride.”

Attendees at a block party on Saturday, organized by neighbors, posed for portraits in a truck outside the Welcome Home Garden, where volunteers from the Inside Out Project created prints of the subjects.

Inside Out Project Bed-Stuy

Residents and volunteers from the Inside Out Project pasted large portraits on the walls of the Welcome Home Garden on Saturday. Photo credit: Robyn Twomey

The global participatory project, founded by street artist JR, encourages people to “transform messages of personal identity into works of public art” with the large-scale, black-and-white snapshots.

Nearly 200,000 people from more than 122 countries have participated, according to the project’s website.

In Bed-Stuy, the giant portraits are pasted on the garden’s two walls, with around 30 installed on Saturday.

Locals are hoping to place another row of photos in the near future to double the portraits, Twomey said. The installation is expected to be on display for a few months.

“I overheard one mom telling her son that he’d get to see his face on the wall on the way to school every day,” she said.

“The end result is a monument of pride showcasing the beautiful faces of the community, a masterpiece of collaboration, a document of neighborhood love and dignity.”