Clay Maxwell Jordan: Nothing's Coming Soon

Clay Maxwell Jordan: Nothing’s Coming Soon by Aline SmithsonApril 11, 2019

©Clay Maxwell Jordan, from Nothing’s Coming Soon

Clay Maxwell Jordan, photographer and musician, has a new monograph, Nothing’s Coming Soon, published by Fall Line Press. The photographs of the American South were inspired by the Buddhist belief that “life is suffering” and a place where grace and beauty is juxtaposed with loss and decay. The book is “a poetic, existential meditation on the human condition”and includes an essay by eminent photography critic and chair of Stanford University Department of Art, Alexander Nemerov.

Clay Maxwell Jordan has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. He is a 2019 MacDowell fellow and currently resides in Athens, Georgia. You can find Clay on instagram here: @pacificuv

Book Cover for Nothing’s Coming Soon

©Clay Maxwell Jordan, spread from Nothing’s Coming Soon

©Clay Maxwell Jordan, spread from Nothing’s Coming Soon

©Clay Maxwell Jordan, spread from Nothing’s Coming Soon

Nothing’s Coming Soon

Rarely do I venture out with a subject in mind to photograph — usually I walk or drive around until I see something that compels me to stop, analyze, and possibly photograph for later perusal. Over time, the editing process yields a series of images that coalesce into a body of work with specific themes or preoccupations. With regards to my last completed series, “Nothing’s Coming Soon”, themes included aging, mortality, and decay.

After editing and sequence this work, I realized the Buddhist saying “Life is suffering” could encapsulate these pictures; I was visually documenting two traits all humans share: mortality and unrelenting desire.I do not intend for these images to be morbid or pessimistic, but rather hopeful by showing the beauty inherent in decay and the hard-won knowledge gained from experience. – Clay Maxwell Jordan