other hand, had the benefit of modern technology — she worked with a much lighter and more portable hand-held digital camera. Because of that, the type of photograph she was capable of creating was inherently different, which gave her more freedom to make her own art. “I would think about keeping Atget’s style in the back of my mind all the time but still photographing new things I saw.” Sometimes, depending on the location, rather than taking a photograph of the exact scene Atget chose, Jordan would photograph the entire street to create a similar but distinct image. “A lot of times I’d have, for instance, a building that was in his picture in my picture, but maybe I’d change the frame or I’d walk around to a different side of the street. You could still see that the subject was the same. My goal was to make my own photographs but also have them reminiscent of Atget’s. It became my own artwork, but you could still recognize that it was the same
“My goal was to make my own photographs but also have them reminiscent of Atget’s. It became my own artwork, but you could still recognize that it was the same place and see how it has or hasn’t changed.” —Hallie Jordan
place and see how it has or hasn’t changed.” Another aspect of Jordan’s photography that was different from Atget’s was time of day. Atget photographed mostly in the early morning hours. There are not a lot of people in his photos, either because of the time of day or because his long exposure would have blurred out movement. When Jordan arrived in Paris, it rained constantly, making all of her photographs gray. Upon the advice of Winningham, she began taking night photos. This was a turning point for her photography, resulting in many more dramatic scenes and a total of 8,000 photos. For her show, Jordan and Winningham sorted through all of those 8,000 images to choose the most artistic and to pair each of them with a similar photo by Atget. “I actually found a lot of the pairings that I used in my show after I came back,” said Jordan. “I was looking through books in Fondren Library, and there were photos I hadn’t scanned or taken with me but matched photos I took. That was exciting.” Jordan thinks that photography will be a lifelong passion, even beyond her recent graduation. “I’ve been photographing more or less most of my life,” she said. “I don’t remember not wanting to take pictures — at home and on family trips. I’ve been taking photography classes every semester since my sophomore year. They’ve been my favorite part about Rice. At least in some capacity I’ll always take photographs.” Perhaps someday we’ll read about a student who is studying Jordan’s immortal photos.
Rice Magazine
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No. 13
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2012
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