Every once in a while, someone comes along and makes you look at the world in a new way, and suddenly you can never see things quite the same way again. Chris Jordan is such a person.This Seattle-based photographic artist has devoted about five years to showing unusual perspectives on American mass consumerism.
“My work is about the behaviours we all engage in unconsciously on a collective level,” says Jordan in last year’s TED presentation Pictures of Excess.
He’s referring to the things we’re in denial about. Like drinking bottled water even though we know we shouldn’t. Or all those paper coffee cups we drink from and throw away with maybe a twinge of guilt…but we keep doing it.
So you throw away one cup. Big deal. Hmm? Two cups. Bigger deal. But…”when 300 million people engage in unconscious behaviours it can add up to a catastrophic consequence,” says Jordan.
Chris Jordan – Picturing Excess (courtesy of TED.com)
Looking at Jordan’s work had an interesting effect on me. My formerly trashy life began passing before my eyes. Every cigarette butt I ever stamped out on the ground when I was a smoker. Every can I didn’t recycle. Every convenient Lean Cuisine I purchased in its plastic dish instead of buying fresh food.
Then I had a bizarre image … what if when we died, we had to take everything we ever threw away with us – everything non-biodegradable that is? Every pop bottle, every plastic bag, every McDonalds wrapper, every good intention we discarded.
I saw my soul trying to get lift-off to whatever lies beyond, held back by plastic packaging from Revlon blush, shampoo bottles, mascara tubes, pizza boxes, ink cartridges, orange juice containers — the flotsam of a life lived in a materialistic culture. Holy crap.
Frankly, it all gets overwhelming but that’s the beauty of Chris Jordan’s art. It’s not like he sets out to make you wallow in guilt. Instead, he simply shows you a detour past the denial. He doesn’t preach. He doesn’t teach. He just reveals another perspective and your mind does the rest. I hope you’ll take the time to watch the following video as well.
Chris Jordan – Portraits of American Mass Consumption
Photo Credits
“Cans” by Chris Jordan
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Just about to move house and you cannot imagine the amount of trash I have gathered over the years!
One good thing about France is that they adopted a two bag system for garbage – black one for degradables and yellow see-through one for boxes and cartons.The town hall even employed a lady to do sudden swoops with long plastic gloves to go through your garbage and shame you!