I’m a huge fan of the work of a friend of mine, photographer Chris Jordan. His work is both subtle and bold, timely and timeless. Among other things, it beautifully (albeit tragically) explores human consumerism/consumption and the resulting detriments to the planet. From his work, we get a sense of freedom to grieve this predicament, but also a motivation toward change and inspired cause-based activism. The above video is a short chronicle of Chris’ midway project–a heavy, but brilliant undertaking.
This interview is the work of a longtime filmmaker buddy, Riley Morton, and is the first step in a collaboration between myself and Riley where we get together and–via my curation of subjects and his interviews–tell short stories about interesting people in our professional circles. It’s my hope that you’ll like learning about Chris and his work. If this idea catches on, I’d like to do more of these with other folks too.
More of Chris’ work here.
I love Chris Jordan, super intelligent person who tackles some really big issues. Thanks for sharing and I hope everyone here passes this round to friends to educate and hopefully motivate us to pull our heads out of the sand…
It seems logical but seeing it happen is something else. It’s not an easy path he took but a very humble one.
I too have known about the garbage patch, but have never seen the effects it has on the birds like this. What an amazing and powerful project. The really depressing part of this tragedy is that it may bring awareness to this monumental problem, but I feel thats where it will end. What action will take place? What will we do about this? Can it be fixed? Can we help these animals? Sadly I think the answers are grim. I would like to think the people of the planet will all come together and solve this problem, but, at least in the US, we are more concerned about cutting and deficits and avoiding government shutdowns over the bigger picture.
Thanks for sharing this photographer’s work with us Chase and hopefully bringing more awareness of this problem to more people. Who knows, maybe the right people will see this and start something good.
My heart just crumbled.
Stunning. Humbling, and maddening, but stunning.