Jordan is a Seattle based photographer best known for his large-scale depictions of mass waste. I found him via related search when I was looking at Taryn Simon's work. His most recent series, Midway: Message from the Gyre, really shocked me. These images are so strong they literally make me want to throw up, and I'm not usually squeamish. I thought they were faked, that the items were placed after the carcasses were found, but unfortunately they're real... These baby albatrosses were fed plastic by their parents, who mistakenly identified the floating objects as food. If that isn't tragic, I don't know what is. What's really stunning is how in some of the more decomposed bodies, you can hardly make out the difference between organic matter and plastic waste. And there is SO MUCH plastic, these poor birds kept eating more and more of it to satiate their desperate hunger (another beautiful parallel to consumerism). This is truly one of those cases where an image speaks a thousand words. Also, there aren't just 4 or 5 photos, there are at least 20.
"For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre
mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the
collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth.
Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the
ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our
lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical
albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies
not out there, but in here."
Here's his site: site his here's.
I really love his observation within that quote about indiscernible waste. Without further ado:
God I really wish these were faked. It's so sad that even animals are being feed consumerism and capitalism. Nothing's pure anymore I guess...
ReplyDeleteReally tragic and disturbing, but they were photographed in a way that's beautiful, like this action was like a memorial service for the albatrosses.