Chris Jordan is a force. Not only is he doing amazing environmental photography, but his path to getting there is inspiring as well. Although I’ve never met Chris Jordan, I am a photographer interested in our environment and he is my hero.

Chris was a lawyer for ten years and I would bet that he was a good one. But, as it turns out, he was not meant for the law. He was meant to bring attention to trash. Or, better said, he was meant to bring attention to our consumptive society. This is what he was drawn to and couldn’t ignore.

It all started when he went to an industrial yard hoping to photograph patterns. This opened his eyes to how much we throw away and he began to photograph garbage. With his exhibit Intolerable Beauty, large scale portraits of mass consumption, he would cite statistics about how much of certain things like plastic cups, for example, that we throw away every day. Click on the links for exhibits to see examples of the work.

The numbers, though, didn’t really have the impact he wanted. So, Jordan began to figure out how to portray the numbers through his images. His exhibit, Running the Numbers, began to put it all into perspective in a visual way.

“My idea with the Running the Numbers series is to provide the visual. To give you the statistic in a different way that allows the viewer to experience the number more directly with their heart.”

His latest collaborative project, Midway Journey, shows the effects of our consumptive society on wildlife, especially beautiful albatrosses, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This is heartbreaking.

While his work may not be something we want to hear about, it is essential that we do. Chris has used his talent and his inspiration to create work that is beautiful and intolerable at the same time. He realizes that he is just as much a part of this disposable society as the rest of us. But, like any addiction, we tend to be in denial. He says that even an alcoholic in an alcoholic family can be the one who stands up and says, Enough!

What I love about Chris’ story, though, is how he got there. He paid attention to what grabbed him. And gave up one career for what he felt compelled to do. Most parents would encourage their kids to go into law but not necessarily to photograph garbage. What we need to encourage our kids to do is to care. And whether that caring manifests through the law or through photographing garbage doesn’t matter. They should be allowed to figure that out.

Here is Chris Jordan in one of my favorite TED Videos (11:15). Can you see why he is my hero?

Read more at:
Chris Jordan Website

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