Katrina Photographs by Chris Jordan

Chris Jordan makes beautiful compositions of not-so-beautiful subjects such as mass waste and the effects of global warming. In his own words he “uses beauty as a tool for seduction” to draw the viewer in and, hopefully, lead them to consider the grave issues at hand. Jordan’s Consumerism images capture what The New York Times called “the great big beautiful pile of junk” that results from the millions of computers, cellphones and other electronics discarded by Americans every year. Jordan’s recent Katrina series, photographed in New Orleans in November and December of 2005, portrays the cost of Hurricane Katrina on a personal scale.

The 2006 publication, In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss From An Unnatural Disaster, photographs from Chris Jordan, essays by Bill McKibben and Susan Zakin, and poems by Victoria Sloan Jordan, is available from Princeton Architectural Press, New York.