ASSESSING OUR DAMAGE
A Conversation With Photographer Chris Jordan
By Cicily Janus

 

Have you ever really thought about the damage we do, as Americans, to our environment, animals, fellow friends, family and strangers on a daily basis? No? Well, Chris Jordan has. Chris has based his art on the damaged goods of our country. Finally discovering his place in the world, Chris has vastly changed his life from corporate lawyer to photographer. Through his work he is starting to feel a connection, one that not only brings inner peace and intense personal satisfaction, but a larger, more important bond with the world that he has yet to experience. Through a phone interview, ANM was able to find out exactly what makes Seattle resident and über-passionate photographer, Chris Jordan, tick. 

"Whether or not I am creating an impact is depressing to me"

ANM: How much research goes into one piece of your work? (most of his “photographs” are several feet tall by several feet wide)
CJ: I run across an issue that starts with a statistic. Maybe I find inspiration in the NY times or some other news source. Then I take the idea…number of plastic bottles we use, the phenomenon of breast augmentation, number of prisoners, etc…and go digging around with Google searches and journalistic research. Inevitably, I find the same numbers over and over and a sense of the range of reliable numbers comes into play. I take the more conservative number and start the piece.
Then the challenge is how to depict the statistic. It must have a series of layers that can portray the issue. I’m always cognizant of how I depict the problem and objectify myself. I am in no position to finger wag. I must see the complexity and honor it without becoming didactic or one dimensional. I do lots of digital sketching, photoshop and duplication. And I ask for help from my friends…especially my wife. 

ANM: How many pieces are in the Running the Numbers Series?
CJ: There are 22 with another 6-8 in progress. 

ANM: Why do you feel it is important to show people the so called error of their ways?
CJ: For me, it’s about bringing the unconscious behaviors we engage in as a culture out of the shadows and into the light of conscious awareness.

ANM: What brought this “inspiration” to light for you? 
CJ: For years, I was an attorney. My work was disengaged from the contemporary world, all aesthetic in nature, looking towards a figure of detached beauty. But one day, I took a photo of a pile of garbage because I thought it was cool, beautiful, but, in a French impressionistic way with a complex palate of colors, hard to describe really.
Other photographer friends would come over and strike up conversations regarding the piece and a concept called, consumerism. I wasn’t really interested in modern art or activist issues. But this photo, they said, was connected not only with the contemporary world, but it could potentially start a thread about consumerism. 
After reading the book, Culture Jam Kalle Lasn, I had an awakening. I awoke from the matrix. I came out of denial the way an alcoholic has to start opening up to the deeper issue at hand. At the age of 40, to be experiencing this, was a shock. Issues like consumerism, societal disregard, vanishing indigenous cultures, etc, hadn’t existed for me. Then I went from ignorance to caring deeply about the issues and an even greater change took place. I was living a self centered life. I didn’t think I mattered. I was affirmatively detached from caring about the environment, nothing more or less.

ANM: You speak of societal problems. Could you elaborate on this?
CJ: There is a definite link between the social problems of our world today and the consumerism movement. It’s all about the disconnectedness—a lack of mindfulness. We all do these unconscious behaviors…when was the last time you were mean to your spouse because you were mad at somebody else? If we can start to notice these behaviors and bring them from our unconscious into our conscious awareness, then suddenly we will be presented with a choice that wasn’t there before. And only then, will we be able to start changing our ways. But the green movement is all about saying, wait, we can change this, we don’t have to be inhumane to thousands of animals, to our friends and neighbors, we don’t have to throw harmful substances like mercury in our environment, we don’t have to go through all those millions of barrels of oil a day, etc…

ANM: What is your biggest challenge with your current works?
CJ: Probably the most challenging aspect of this exhibit is the motivation itself. As you start to look at the phenomenon that is taking place, I realized that the only way I could show this to the world and have them experience it as a collective audience without losing people in the massive appeal. My interpretation of the photographs was to show them the harsh statistics. It would be difficult to experience the Grand Canyon in figures.
What I am attempting to do is show a mass phenomenon that we can’t see and is essentially invisible. Our brains just aren’t wired to make feelings and emotions out of numbers. To put into being a translation to these statistics in a visual manner, is like driving the unfeeling to feeling, bringing it all to light through a visual language. If we can’t feel it, then it won’t matter and we won’t begin to change.

ANM: Can you give me some of the statistics you used as your so-called inspiration?
CJ: Here’s something to think about. 20,600,000 barrels of oil are burned each day in the United States. The United States is clearly the most wasteful of the countries. We represent about 5% of the worlds population and we consume a third of the wood, petroleum and green house gasses of the world. The country in second place? China. They burn only 7,000,000 barrels of oil a day. As a matter of fact, we burn more than China and India combined. But it all boils down to this, US, Germany, China, India, Japan, the countries that have similar problems with destruction of the environment are all experiencing a deadening of the spirit. The countries that are primitive are now the ones our cultural leaders are starting to look from different angles, to learn their ways and how to bring back the basics. As Wade Davis says, Indigenous cultures of the world are not failed attempts at being us.  Hearing this makes me aware and conscious of my own depth of prejudice regarding these lives. 

ANM: Do you feel you are creating an impact on the people who view your art?
CJ: The responsibility I take for my work and for what it represents is my motivation. Whether or not I am creating an impact is depressing to me. It doesn’t matter if the work is making a difference. Instead, I would like to think that I am playing a role in an incredibly complex living system. I hear a lot of people say that after seeing my work they went out and made a change in their lives, but I would like to think they reached an internal critical mass that was tipped by my work, but had been building inside for a much longer time. 
Previous generations had no idea what the consequences of their actions would be. The Sam Walton’s and Kmart CEO’s of the world just didn’t realize what their impact would be. We can’t blame them. We’re the first generation that knows the truth. With a new world view, a holistic world view that is influenced and enabled by the World Wide Web, Google Earth and other sophisticated resources, we are placed in charge and share a sense of tremendous responsibility. What we do now will affect every generation to come. 

ANM: How have you taken steps to move your life and your family’s life towards a green life?
CJ: Several ways. I don’t buy clothes that are new, I shop at Goodwill Stores. My family and I do not drink anything from aluminum cans or plastic bottles. We have gone vegetarian almost to the point of Vegan, that being said, we like our eggs and cheese.
But no matter what we do, it will never feel as though it is enough. Going green doesn’t require for you to be an altruistic individual. You shouldn’t consider this as a sacrifice. Instead it will have the opposite effect. I’ve had an enormous pay-off—a feeling of well being and huge improvement in my personal quality of life is more than enough. 

ANM: Do you think we’ll be able to reverse the damage?
CJ: We absolutely have it in our hands to reverse it. Question is, are we going to? Take a look at the Government and the giant corporations. They just don’t work anymore. Instead they’re turning into ancient Frankenstein monsters and will persist unless we come together and say that this has got to change and right now. But it’s the momentum that is already in place that seems impossible to stop. 
We’re on the cusps. A map of extinction has already been laid out and it’s about to get worse. Judging by its measurements, Global Warming is already worse than the worst case scenario. We are on the brink of a catastrophe. Now, whether or not that catastrophe will be this year or five years from now, and how bad it is going to be, has yet to be figured out. 
A harmonized awakening is happening around the world without regard to race, religion, culture, sexuality. This is the simultaneous enlightenment that the Yogi’s predicted would happen. What the result of this is anyone’s guess. If you want
to look at the scope and scale of the movement, I suggest you check out Paul Hawken's video and book, Blessed Unrest.

ANM: In closing, what projects are on your drawing board?
CJ: I have several. Oceans of the World, (i.e.: number of fishing boats on the water at any given moment, number of sharks killed for dorsal fins, rendering them to the point of extinction, bottom trolling damages, etc.) Africa, (i.e., humanity issues, number of children dying from water born disease, all of which is preventable, malaria and Rwanda etc.) and a visual depiction of the United States Military (i.e., no complex artistic works, just the stark truths of the numbers of fleets, nuclear war heads, F-16’s, etc.)
All of these subjects have staggering statistics that need to be put into perspective, into my visual translation of their statistics. 
I was just names the Eco-Ambassador for Earth Day 2008 through the National Geographic Society and I will be touring for the whole month of April to Lisbon, Taipei and Rome, giving talks, exhibiting my works and media appearances. My exhibit is currently at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. 

ANM: Thank you Chris for giving me this opportunity and I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors. 

Chris Jordan’s website, www.chrisjordan.com offers a wealth of information on his works, as well as links to where his work can be found.