all images by Chris Jordan

I’ve been completely captivated by Chris Jordan’s work since discovering his apocalyptic, Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption project. This picture of cell phones. Or this one of cell phone chargers. Or this one of Crushed Cars. Wow, what a comment consumerism’s magnetic charm. It’s like catnip to humans. If the photos I just linked to doesn’t make you stop and think about the harm we’re doing this planet, peep his other series titled Running With Numbers, which has also been turned into a book. If that doesn’t illuminate the delimma, I’m not sure anything will connect the dots for you. A little bit of death, perhaps? Midway, Jordan’s latest project hits me the same unforgettable way. I saw the images before I read about the project and thought I was looking at set up shots of dead birds tied into a bigger message. I was so wrong.

“These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.” – Chris Jordan.

Chris has a few current and upcoming shows. The two current shows at the moment: “Message in a Bottle” show currently on display at The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA, until December 30; and “Rummaging in the Rubbish: Waste and Recycling in Contemporary Art” at Koldo Mitxelena Cultural Centre, San Sebastian, until Jan 23. From Nov 7 to Dec. 11, “What’s the Rush? Topics on Convenience” will be at California State University Fullerton Main Art Gallery. Check his site for more info.

final note: Lost In A Supermarket can mean many things to many people (it does to me), but one thing it definitely is: a living comment on western consumerism. And for that Chris Jordan is a hero in my eyes.