"Printing The Chronicles of Kyoto," Kyotographie, 2025

At the occasion of JR’s first Chronicles mural in Asia for KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, JR exhibited Printing the Chronicles of Kyoto in the Kyoto Shimbun Building B1F, where the city’s newspaper was historically printed. JR was honored to be the last to exhibit in the building before it was torn down.

With the support of KYOTOGRAPHIE, JR set up mobile studios in eight locations across the city from October 26th to November 2nd, 2024, including in Kyoto Station, the plaza at Kyoto City Hall, on the Kamogawa Delta, and in the countryside of Ohara. Through portraiture and audio recordings of 505 participants, JR explored the city’s spirit and diverse creativity resulting in The Chronicles of Kyoto mural, now spanning the North Wall of the Kyoto Station. The mural will be on view until October 2025. Explore the mural and listen to the participant’s stories. 

Printing the Chronicles of Kyoto was an exploration into the making process of the Chronicles series. Pieces of previous murals filled the first rooms of the former printing press, guiding visitors to explore the Chronicles of San Francisco, New York City, Cuba, and Miami. 

To reveal the process of stitching together the individual portraits of Kyoto, JR displayed their cut outs against pages of the Shimbun newspaper, matched to the date they were photographed. In the main space, ten Giants held up by scaffolding overlooked visitors as they walked by, glowing and playing the portrait’s audio story. 

Learn more about Printing the Chronicles of Kyoto.