After Jordan

Alonzo Jordan, was a community photographer in Jasper Texas who documented nearly every type of community ritual from weddings and parties to “the last look,” at funeral receptions. Nearly every member of the African American community in Jasper Texas had their portrait made by Jordan during his 4o year career as a photographer. This work is an effort to trace back over Jordan’s amazing legacy by making portraits of people he once photographed 20 years ago. Subjects were photographed in a similar manner to the way Jordan would have photographed them, using a large format view camera. I did not know about Jordan until I had been well under way in a project to document members of Armstrong and Moore Chapel C.M.E. churches, making pictures candidly during church service for a membership registry. During the process people would say, “you are just as slow as Alonzo was.” This prompted me to learn about the man and his craft. This work would not exist without his precedent.