Dave Jordano

Dave Jordano was born in Detroit in 1948. He attended the College for Creative Studies where he received a bachelor's degree in photography. In 1977, Jordano formed a commercial photography business. Jordano's clients included Starbucks, Nestle, Sears, McDonald's, and General Mills, among other large companies. Jordano turned his photography toward fine art in 2001 when he began work photographing industrial structures in the Chicago, Illinois area. Through 2007, Jordano continued to work in the Illinois/Indiana area, photographing landscapes, churches, and individuals. In 2010, Jordano began work on his Detroit: Unbroken Down project. This project focused on the cultural identity of his birth place of Detroit, Michigan.

Jordano's work has been featured in many private collections and museums, most notably, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Jordano has won or been nominated for over ten major photography awards since 2003. These awards include Canada's most significant photography award, the $50,000 AIMIA/AGO Photography Prize, which Jordano won in 2015.

Dave Jordano's introduction to photography was, as he explains in a 2014 interview, "an epiphany". While stationed in Germany in 1968 Jordano was invited by a friend to take black and white portraits. As Jordano was developing the film, he knew that photography was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He had never felt so strongly about anything, and likens the moment to a religious experience. A woman who ran the local photo lab, Frau Nastvogel, became Jordano's mentor. Jordano was guided by Nastvogel's enthusiasm, his own family's support, and the work of another teacher named Bill Rauhauser. Rauhauser would influence Jordano's love of street photography with his knowledge of history and photo theory. Jordano has stated that Rauhauser's critiques were "invaluable". Jordan's other influences as a young photographer were Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Paul Caponigro. Jordano's remaining time in Germany was a time of "experimentation", where he learned a contemplative, and methodical approach to photography. This precise way of working, he states, fit his own personality.

When Jordano began work on Detroit: Unbroken Down in 2010, it was in response to a rising trend in photography known as "ruin porn". Jordano was affected by the media's portrayal of Detroit as a one dimensional city, and wanted to alter the public's negative view of Detroit.  Jordano's goal was to return to his birthplace of Detroit and right what he called a "horrible misrepresentation of a city that had fallen on hard times". After the initial shock of experiencing the crumbling buildings and homes, Jordano realized that he was doing nothing to help the problems of Detroit by recording what had already been shown to the country. To combat the capitalization of Detroit's failure, Jordano turned to the people of Detroit. They became the focus of his street photography. These poor people hadn't failed, the system had failed them. Jordano's portraits capture the resiliency of the people. The photos aren't about the crumbling surroundings, they are about the hope the people of Detroit still hold on to. By 2013, Jordano had returned to Detroit 23 times. In those three years the people displayed "an uncanny ability to remain positive". Despite the hardships, these people continued to make the best of their situation. By showing this to the world through his photography, Jordano doesn't allow the people to be blamed. They get by through life working together, bartering, growing gardens, and maintaining self-sufficient communities. The people transcend the negativity brought on by the media.

Dave Jordano's work will stand the test of time because of its honesty. Jordano's work steers away from the trendy, and offers something real. Jordano's unpretentious portraits and landscapes hide nothing, honestly revealing the people and places he photographs. While Jordano's work differs from my own for many reasons, one of which being his superior skill, I can take something from it. I can learn from Jordano's photographs on a technical level, and on a moral level. As well as taking good photographs, there should be a reason for taking the photographs. There should exist a theme and meaning behind the work. Dave Jordano's work is truly inspirational.


References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Jordano

http://petapixel.com/2014/01/18/interview-photographer-dave-jordano-detroit-unbroken/