Midway Atoll is actually composed of two small islands, Sand Island -which is the largest and the only one inhabited- and Eastern Island, slightly over one mile long, and separated from Sand Island by a narrow channel that provides access to the interior of the lagoon. Matt Brown, Manager of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife [...]
Early one morning I was out photographing along a meadow trail strewn with decaying albatross carcasses. The sun had just risen, and my camera was set up to photograph the exposed body cavity of an albatross chick filled with multicolored plastic. I heard the sound of a motor approaching, and looked up to see one [...]
A day off for snorkeling turns into a mission to recover a ghost net. Video by Bill Weaver, voice over by Chris Jordan. Music by Christen Lien.
I’m confused by the abundant life and abundant plastic pollution here. It’s easy to slip into a fantasy that a sort of balance has been achieved on Midway Atoll. Birds nesting amidst plastic cigarette lighters, bottle caps, toys, umpteen bits and pieces of plastic; turtles pulling up on the beach to rest among plastic buoys [...]
Until now, we have not shown the carcasses of the albatross chicks that Chris Jordan has been photographing, stuffed with plastic beyond belief. So much plastic, and in such bizarre combinations of objects and colors, that we recently posted a video in which Chris explains his photography ethic: no plastic is added to any photo, [...]
In the middle of the Pacific lies a sandy island, where seabirds and humans mingle in a process of renewal and soul-searching. A place where the middle of nowhere becomes not only the middle of somewhere, but the heart of everything. Midway Atoll is a place of ancient power. A revered elder in a long [...]
A large percentage of the permanent residents of Midway are Thai workers, hired by a company called Chugach which provides many services to the island, from maintenance, to food and lodging. Kittipong Janthasang is a Bangkok native who has lived on Midway for three years. We can find him pulling invasive weeds from the fields [...]
Capturing high-resolution images thousands of miles from a camera store means having the best tools possible and a lot of redundancy. In this clip, Bill Weaver profiles some of the technology Chris Jordan has brought to Midway. Video by Bill Weaver
Chris Jordan summarizes our visit to Eastern island on day 7 of our Journey, and shows 2 minute’s worth of plastic collected at random on the beach by him and Victora Sloan Jordan.
Dear friends, I thought I’d check in at the halfway point of our trip. First of all, greetings! I wish I could snap my fingers and you would all appear here with us. In terms of my photographic work so far, my primary feeling is one of anxious urgency. What I am seeing through my [...]
