People pass by a luxury shop on Waikiki's Kalakaua Avenue in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved
Chris Jordan is an American photographer that took up photography after being a lawyer for ten years. You have probably seen his iconic images of American consumerism even if you didn't know his name.
Mr. Jordan was among ten photographers, including me, whose work appeared at Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands in conjunction with the 2008 Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency.
In a September 26, 2006 interview that appeared on Jörg Colberg's blog Conscientious, Chris Jordan remarked,
"I don't have a good sense about whether my images are actually affecting anyone's behavior. I suspect that they are not in any direct way. It's a complex subject, because on one hand I want to be an advocate, but on the other hand I have to be realistic about my chances of changing anything."
He continues, "In Europe it is cool to be a down shifter, to buy used clothes and talk about sustainability on a household level….the social indicators of unhappiness such as suicide, anxiety, depression, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse are lower in Europe than they are here (America), and dropping while ours are rising."
I wrote in a previous post about child laborer Chantal Srey Mao's death, "As photojournalists, writers and publishers, our names are not important, but we hope we can illuminate issues and bring them to you so that we all may learn a bit more about the world around us."
After we all learn a bit move about the world around us (if we do), are we happy about what we discover?
There are lots of people doing great things around the world and that is a great discovery in itself. I'll be the first to admit that I could never approach the level of commitment and good deeds of many of the people I've learned about. Just have a look at some of the links posted on this blog and you will find literally hundreds of people who have probably questioned their own behavior and discovered new paths to self-fulfillment. Today these people are making differences in the areas of human rights, gender equality and the environment and don't seem too interested in telling the world about "their stuff".
So how about the rest of us "Average Joes" out here? Does having "stuff" make us happier or have we fallen into the trance Jordan himself admits he'd descended?
Take global warming for example. Chantal Srey Mao was working at a place in Cambodia where she was forced to breathe in heavy air polluted by constantly smoldering garbage that generates toxic byproducts, including methane, a global warming gas 23 times more potent than CO2.
According to the recent UK government-commissioned Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, "international efforts to combat climate change must prioritize the preservation of existing natural forests."
It's a well known fact Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's family has stripped the country's forests. Cambodia has lost over 30% of its primary tropical forest in just the last 6 years. It seems that Hun Sen's depth of denial is quite frightening regarding global warming and he doesn't care about the environment.
Chris Jordan says, "To escape the insane money-driven consumer matrix we have enslaved ourselves in, you don't have to be a saint or an altruist or even care about saving the environment at all. You can do it for the purely selfish reason that you want to save your own soul."
I'm not a soul saver but rather, have faith that people are responsible for saving their own souls should they choose to. For me and probably some of you it's a nice thought though.
I wonder if knowing about American photographer Chris Jordan could snap Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen out of his own Kleptocratic trance?
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage
Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved
Chris Jordan is an American photographer that took up photography after being a lawyer for ten years. You have probably seen his iconic images of American consumerism even if you didn't know his name.
Mr. Jordan was among ten photographers, including me, whose work appeared at Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands in conjunction with the 2008 Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency.
In a September 26, 2006 interview that appeared on Jörg Colberg's blog Conscientious, Chris Jordan remarked,
"I don't have a good sense about whether my images are actually affecting anyone's behavior. I suspect that they are not in any direct way. It's a complex subject, because on one hand I want to be an advocate, but on the other hand I have to be realistic about my chances of changing anything."
He continues, "In Europe it is cool to be a down shifter, to buy used clothes and talk about sustainability on a household level….the social indicators of unhappiness such as suicide, anxiety, depression, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse are lower in Europe than they are here (America), and dropping while ours are rising."
I wrote in a previous post about child laborer Chantal Srey Mao's death, "As photojournalists, writers and publishers, our names are not important, but we hope we can illuminate issues and bring them to you so that we all may learn a bit more about the world around us."
After we all learn a bit move about the world around us (if we do), are we happy about what we discover?
There are lots of people doing great things around the world and that is a great discovery in itself. I'll be the first to admit that I could never approach the level of commitment and good deeds of many of the people I've learned about. Just have a look at some of the links posted on this blog and you will find literally hundreds of people who have probably questioned their own behavior and discovered new paths to self-fulfillment. Today these people are making differences in the areas of human rights, gender equality and the environment and don't seem too interested in telling the world about "their stuff".
So how about the rest of us "Average Joes" out here? Does having "stuff" make us happier or have we fallen into the trance Jordan himself admits he'd descended?
Take global warming for example. Chantal Srey Mao was working at a place in Cambodia where she was forced to breathe in heavy air polluted by constantly smoldering garbage that generates toxic byproducts, including methane, a global warming gas 23 times more potent than CO2.
According to the recent UK government-commissioned Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, "international efforts to combat climate change must prioritize the preservation of existing natural forests."
It's a well known fact Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's family has stripped the country's forests. Cambodia has lost over 30% of its primary tropical forest in just the last 6 years. It seems that Hun Sen's depth of denial is quite frightening regarding global warming and he doesn't care about the environment.
Chris Jordan says, "To escape the insane money-driven consumer matrix we have enslaved ourselves in, you don't have to be a saint or an altruist or even care about saving the environment at all. You can do it for the purely selfish reason that you want to save your own soul."
I'm not a soul saver but rather, have faith that people are responsible for saving their own souls should they choose to. For me and probably some of you it's a nice thought though.
I wonder if knowing about American photographer Chris Jordan could snap Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen out of his own Kleptocratic trance?
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage
1 comment:
Yea, Seattle was a great guy!
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