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. – Chris Jordan
Set your compass to beauty, humor, and grief; stay the course no matter what, and I’ll support you with everything I’ve got. – Chris Jordan
My ideas tend to arise out of nowhere when I’m not intentionally trying to think of something. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
I hate the word ‘rendering,’ as it equates to ‘pouring concrete’ on ideas that demand continuing dialog. ‘Trade secrets’ imply hoarding of knowledge. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
American culture is not about experiencing our shame, it’s about denying it. It’s been that way our whole history. – Chris Jordan
I crave to be able to photograph the way a painter paints – in a loose, expressive way. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
I know that if I were to take ugly photographs, no one would be interested in looking at them. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
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. – Chris Jordan
