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Photo Exhibition Features Insight into Meditative Practice

© Christopher Jordan, from Nowhere in Place

Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa will host a solo exhibition of photography by Associate Professor Christopher Jordan opening Friday, November 5, 2021. The public is invited for a First Friday opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The exhibition will run through November 30. Masks and vaccinations are strongly encouraged.

The works on display are from Jordan’s new book, Nowhere in Place (GFT Publishing, 2021), and explore the meeting place between meditation and photography with pictures Jordan has taken on travels in Alabama, Colorado and India between 2014 and 2016. Jordan’s practice, he said, is to meditate before going out to take pictures, which allows him to “see the world in fresh ways, appreciating overlooked details that might escape a mind preoccupied with business-as-usual.”

Within each locale, Jordan said that he photographed “nowhere” in particular. “For me, the photograph becomes a place of its own being: a sanctuary for meditation, a record of what is seen and heard and felt, an opportunity to see a place and an image right now.”

For example, the book opens in Tuscaloosa. “For many, T-town is a place of Southern charms and Alabama football, but, in these works,” he said, “it becomes a visual play of textures, colors, and abstract planes with nary a person in sight. While each photograph has its ‘place,’ it could have been made anywhere. The photograph is a medium of meditation and transcendence, providing a point of intersection where one recognizes our shared, common humanity.”

Jordan is an associate professor of photography at UA. His photography engages many styles, ranging from experimental, material-based images to the digital images one sees in Nowhere in Place. A common denominator in all his work is a sense of place and how photography can be used for reflection, memory and contemplation. Jordan also maintains an intensive “householder” spiritual practice, integrating yoga, meditation and mindfulness into his life and work. Jordan’s photographs have appeared in Diffusion: Unconventional Photography, Lenscratch, the national traveling photography exhibition, “Spinning Yarns,” and numerous exhibitions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The book, which is available through most booksellers, will also be available at the exhibition through the artist.

Harrison Galleries, LLC, is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa. For more information, call the gallery (205) 464-0054 or visit the website

For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.