Warm greetings.
My oldest son, Brian, recently sent me an email reminding me of the extraordinary work of Chris Jordan, former corporate attorney turned photographic artist. Chris Jordan has joined the countless others around the planet who are finding their very own unique way to be a voice for the voiceless, to shine light on both hard and higher truths, and to make a very real positive difference in the world. Chris does this through providing Americans a mirror with a very unique lens which offers a profound opportunity to look upon ourselves from an entirely different perspective. And this perspective is riveting. As are the facts that his phenomenal photographs speak to.
Chris Jordan's website is: http://www.chrisjordan.com/.
Here are examples of what you can view in his photographs:
- 1 million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours
- 2 million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes
- 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs
- 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds
- 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005
- 9 million wooden ABC blocks, equal to the number of American children with no health insurance coverage in 2007
- 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds
- 30,000 reams of office paper, or 15 million sheets, equal to the amount of office paper used in the US every five minutes
- 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq
These photographs blew me away when I first saw them. I was deeply impacted. Chris Jordan's work is just one more inspiration for me to work toward ending the occupation of Iraq, using my own cloth bags rather than store bags whenever I shop, staying away from the use of plastic water bottles, etc., etc. See what you think.
To see Chris Jordan on Bill Moyers Journal on September 21, 2007, or to read the transcript, please go here:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09212007/profile4.html
Truly amazing to look in the face of American consumerism and the intolerable beauty that Chris Jordan captures in his amazing art.
And, yes, another world is possible. Tag, you're it...
Many blessings ~ Molly
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