The life that led to Rolando's Wrinkles
Children starting out on their own journey can hear the life stories of their elders in JR’s new book
Wrinkles, the first children’s book by the French artist JR, is a wonderful way to bring young and old together. The images in the book were actually taken for JR’s international art project, Wrinkles in the City, which saw him photograph some of the more senior citizens in different cities around the world, including Shanghai, Istanbul, Havana, Berlin and Los Angeles.
These portraits were enlarged and pasted up, showing the faces of people who had witnessed, first-hand, how their cities had changed.
You can read some of those histories in the lines on their faces. Our new book however, reproduces their life story in simpler terms for younger readers. Here’s the tale behind this man’s wrinkles.
“My name is Rolando Victor Jimenez Briganti,” he explains in the book. “I am 91 but I was only 14 when I moved to Havana, Cuba. I worked in a few shops first, then in a hotel. After that, I worked in a metal factory, and then I was a truck driver for 10 years. Now I sell sweets and cigarettes.”
That’s nearly a century of living, in just over 50, kid friendly, words. For more simple life stories for those just starting out on their own lives, get Wrinkles by JR here.