Earth Day: Stuff To Ponder

Circuit Boards #2, New Orleans 2005 by Chris Jordan

Photographer Chris Jordan has created something both exquisite and disturbing in his collection Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption. Jordan explored the nation’s shipping ports, landfills, and industrial waste yards to capture bizarrely intricate images of the by-products of mass consumption. The result is a moving, eloquent and fascinating illustration of the complex problem of modern consumer society. What do we do with all the stuff? How do we consume less? Do I really need yet another cell phone upgrade?

Cell Phone Chargers, Atlanta 2004, by Chris Jordan

Check out more of Chris Jordan’s work at www.chrisjordan.com.

Future Butterfly Past

Elliott Smith's music was startling in its genuineness. His haunting and deceptively simple melodies balanced on the knife edge of raw vulnerability. Such fragile beauty made his death in 2003 seem all the more shocking. The universe simply could not let such broken perfection slip away so early. And yet, there it was.

Chronicle Books' recently released photo-bio by Autumn de Wilde, an art director and photographer noted for her portraits of indie musicians, provides a poignant look at the life of a brilliant, though tragically troubled, artist. Interviews with friends, family, and fellow musicians provide context for de Wilde's intimate snaps. You'll also get a look at some of Smith's handwritten lyrics, personal ephemera, and insights from those closest to him. The book includes a 5-song CD of previously unreleased live recordings, along with a foreward by Beck and Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla.

It seemed he only lived a day, but it was brilliant anyway.