Chris Jordan Quotations

Set your compass to beauty, humor, and grief; stay the course no matter what, and I'll support you with everything I've got.

All of my work is meant to evoke a whole bunch of different layers of discord between the attraction and repulsion that we feel toward our consumer habits and our consumer lives.

I hate the word 'rendering,' as it equates to 'pouring concrete' on ideas that demand continuing dialog. 'Trade secrets' imply hoarding of knowledge.

There's an axiom I live by: 'There is no art without politics.' You either choose to engage it, or you choose political apathy. This ties in with ideas around real-time performance and feedback.

What I aspire to is to have the viewer look directly at the subject, as if they're looking through a window at the real thing.

I used to be a photographer - and now I'm some kind of digital photographic artist.

Activating is about changing people's perceptions of overlooked or invisible spaces. A building can become an archetype, invisible, like for a New Yorker, for example, the Statue of Liberty. You look at it, and it disappears into the thousands of times you've already seen it.

I crave to be able to photograph the way a painter paints - in a loose, expressive way.

One culture I find fascinating to juxtapose against American culture is the culture of Germany. They've gone through a long process through their art, poetry, public discourse, their politics, of owning the fact of their complicity in what happened in World War II. It's still a topic of everyday conversation in Germany.

American culture is not about experiencing our shame, it's about denying it. It's been that way our whole history.

I want people to realize that they matter.

I'm just becoming more and more aware of this truly profound responsibility that we carry as individuals. And it's a responsibility not only to ourselves and to our families, but to the billions of people who still have to come in the future who will be dealing with our legacy.

There is no public out there who needs to change. It's each one of us.

My ideas tend to arise out of nowhere when I'm not intentionally trying to think of something.

I find myself walking these lines. Like I might be an artist, but I also might be an activist. And I'm trying to be both in a way that honors both and doesn't stray too far into either.

I wasn't interested in politics. My attitude about it was, I can't make a difference no matter what I do. And the truth is, I don't even care enough to try.

I think there's a tremendous amount of unacknowledged hostility in American culture.

I only want to work with transparent ideas and accessible technologies that 'spotlight' the individual's role in society through creativity. I try to live an open-source life.

I know that if I were to take ugly photographs, no one would be interested in looking at them.

I grew up looking at Edward Weston and Henri Cartier-Bresson,

Our left line did a great job and we just moved the ball down the field. There was an open hole and I just found it. That's what I do.

When we put the other Tillman kid in there, he's not a very good man player. But he does a good job in the zone. We had to hope they didn't shoot the ball well. I'm sure they've shot it better.

They were definitely a tough team. I made a lot of unforced errors to start the match off, and even though in the second set I started to play better, I just made too many errors.

Everyone contributed. This was a big win for us. We've been working really hard and we have some big goals for this year.

I don't think I played the way I could have. I definitely think I could have given him a better challenge than I did, ... He got up 3-0 and I think I only won one or two points. I double faulted the first four of my service points. I didn't feel all that nervous. But I never really hit it the way I wanted.