JR: Art is not supposed to change the world. But art can change the way we see the world.
(Music)
So now my wish is ... for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project. And together, we'll turn the world inside out.
[Great big story in partnership with TED]
Narrator: They had a big idea to change the world. But they couldn't do it alone.
(Voices overlapping) So, my wish ... My wish ... I wish ...
And now, here's my wish.
[Torchbearers]
[Ideas in action]
(Camera clicking)
JR: My name is JR, I like to call myself an artist. There are two ways of thinking about my work. The easy way is just -- I'm papering black-and-white images on walls. But I believe my work is about connecting people. For me, it's the power of bringing people together. I went there to do art projects with the community. Now I realize that the community wanted to do art projects even more than I wanted. And I started thinking: Why I don't take myself out of the equation and let them do it?
So the wish was pretty simple: we just put up a website and you can send us your photo for whatever you believe in or whatever you want to fight for; we'll send you back your photo in large format, wherever you are in the world. Every day, I see rolls leaving around the world. The project went much further than the places I've been, and that shows the power of art. And the Photobooths truck is the magic of it.
(Music)
Luana: We're a team of four traveling in the Photobooths truck: Josh, Basel, Jamie and I.
Jamie: To pose, they should look like this.
(Laughter)
We are using two of these trucks to cover 30 cities around America.
Luana: We're just a tool for people that want to send a positive message.
Jamie: Step inside and take a seat over here. Once the truck is ready and running, anyone can come. Wait for the flash.
(Music)
(Camera clicking) Touch the screen, take your picture, type in information. In a matter of a minute or so, we print on the side, three by four feet. No one is used to seeing their face so big.
Woman: Oh yeah, there's my funny face for you.
Jamie: The truck has this magic about bringing photography back to the print. Then the posters go to the wall. We use wallpaper glue, put them up and that's it. We printed more than 300,000 faces already. And we sent them to more than 130 countries.
(Music)
Luana: It's the people's art project. We don't decide the message. It can be political, to bring attention to issues.
Jamie: I love the idea of using photography to promote change. This specific project is to raise awareness about the DREAMers situation.
Karina Ruiz: INSIDE OUT is bringing the opportunity for DREAMers like myself, a person that came here at young age to have a better future, to come out and give a face to the issue.
Vianey Perez: When people drive by and they see a lot of faces, they're going to get curious and they're going to wonder who they are. That's the face to the issue. To humanize it.
(Music)
JR: You do think that just pasting an image up there might have no impact, but it does have an impact. You cannot know when and how, but it's worth trying.
Jamie: It all starts with believing. Right? And so, if you don't believe that you can make change, change will never happen. Even if it's a very small change in one person, that's a positive change. This is not about JR anymore. It's about everyone who believes that art can change the world.
JR: I think that definitely art can change the perception we have about the world. And if we start seeing the world differently, maybe it's a good path to start changing the world.
[Be a part of INSIDE OUT InsideOutProject.net]
