Photography: Chris Jordan’s Portraits of American Mass Consumption

in #photography7 years ago

American photographer Chris Jordan depicts the magnitude of our consumerism and its impact on our environment and our planet.

Jordan uses large scale photographs to depict scenes of infrastructure and industrial waste that few of us will ever experience in person. I personally never thought that there is so much waste out there until i saw those photographs Jordan uses everyday commonalities such as a plastic cup and defines the blind unawareness involved in American consumerism.

In his 2003-05 series entitled “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption”, Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. Cliffs of garbage, small cities of shipping containers, and endless grids of mass-produced goods indicate the sheer amount of stuff we make and consume every day. His work, while often unsettling, is a bold message about unconscious behaviors in our everyday lives, leaving it to the viewer to draw conclusions about the inevitable consequences which will arise from our habits.

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After watching the above photographs, I wonder how will future civilization remember us, What do you think in a 1000 years people will call our civilization? Let me know in the comment section below.

Original Source: http://www.amusingplanet.com/2012/10/chris-jordans-portraits-of-american.html

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A very consumeristic society. Doesn't work anymore? Just throw it away and buy a new one. Who needs to know how to fix stuff? Just buy new stuff.
It reminds of the kids' movie WallE. Soon we'll have to move off the planet because it will be so covered with trash.
Very interesting photos. Thanks for sharing.

you are welcome. Indeed we became so obsessed with buying new things, In Dubai, where I live for example I often see people holding 2 or three mobile phones and as soon as a new mobile phone is out, people will line up to get it while their phones are still intact.

I also hate this buy, break, rebuy shit. Even furniture is being designed to break. We once bought a fake leather sofa. And within a year or two it had streak line tears(never again!). Planned obsolescence is the producer of mountains of garbage. It is a policy that whilst it may be good for business it is bad for the wallets of consumers and very bad for the environment.

Everything we consume becomes waste eventually. Historically all we consumed was 100%biodegradable. The industrial age changed that. Now we drink water out of a plastic bottle that will possibly exist for 500 years. And we throw that bottle away shortly after consuming it's contents. I use the plastic bottle as an example of both use of a valuable ressource and a in my opinion design flaw of how it is used. Biodegradable plastics do exist and hopefully will continue to take marketshare.

I totally agree with you, My hope is that the industrial revolution which started by England since the discovery of Coal and followed by the U.S since the discovery of Oil needs to be replaced with a more horizontal revolution based on the blockchain, solar energy, and resource sharing. This new economic movement has already started in some European countries, that now have schools and Universities make students sit in a group and share their knowledge and skills even in exams which were once called cheating when I went to school. I just hope more and more people can open their eyes and join this industrial revolution.

actually i feel sad when i see this amount of waste but i feel a very very bad till cry when i see same amount of food waste believe me some countries has a lot of food waste that is a bigger problem

The planet has enough food, water, and resources for everyone, however, some get a lot more than others. Imagine the top 62 richest people owns as much as 3 Billion people.

I think they will say there were a stupid crazy people were here on this earth 1000 years back and thanks god they are not existing anymore

I am sure we are going to be called the waste civilization or something in that sense.

if they called us waste only not bad
but it will be more than that bro
i ask for forgiveness from the mighty Allah

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Wow! I can only imagine how much waste we have accumulated as a world.

Yes, This set of photos gives a tiny sample of all the waste around the planet.

That is a very eye opening set of photos. It is so sad that as a country we waste so much!

This is an Issue not only with America but with most cultures today, I am sure each country has a similar dump where the normal people don't even know about and not aware of how much consumers we have become.

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A really cool photography and story thanks for sharing, I will resteem

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