Deep bow, as always, to Chris Jordan. I feel such a soulful connection with this human being and the beauty, wonder, depth of heart, wisdom and mystery that he shares with us all. 🙏💗 Molly
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| Paine Grande, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. Photo @ Chris Jordan |
The Power of Beauty
I see life fundamentally as a spiritual journey. At the heart of it is the wondrous experience of the great miracle of everything. We live in an infinitely complex and beautiful artwork made by an unknowable artist. The closer we look, the more amazing it becomes. The biggest mystery of all is that we are here, alive to experience it in the first place.
When viewed from this perspective, the errors of human culture can be seen as a kind of surface noise. The bad news is not the whole story; it is a finite set of solvable issues, held in a container of beauty that is literally the size of the Universe. This perspective doesn't minimize or balance out any of our suffering, destruction, injustices or atrocities. Beauty doesn't make the tragic any less tragic. But it does provide a frame for the mind to clearly hold the darkness.
For me the most interesting artists are those who somehow are able to take all of this into account and come up with a gesture that honors the complexity of the moment. You can hear this in the work of great musicians, but whether it applies to photography remains an open question for me. Can a photo of a glacier take the rise of fascism into account? How can an electronic device pointed "out there" reflect or express what is happening "in here?" I have no answers. But what I have come to trust in, with all of my being, is the power of beauty. Like a compass, it points us toward home.
Paine Grande, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, Mar 2, 2025
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