Hi All –

Welcome to the newly launched http://www.chrisjordanmedia.com . I recently left my job at the Fairfield Daily Republic to pursue a freelance career as a multimedia producer, photographer and filmmaker. The website will house the journalistic and personal project spectrum of my new life. I’m not sure what direction this blog will take. I’ll write about what’s happening with me, but I also do a lot of multimedia watching and tweeting, so I might link to other peoples work as well.

It was bittersweet leaving my newspaper job. I really care about the people and stories in Fairfield and it was amazing to come to work everyday with my fellow photographers and good friends, Brad Zweerink and Mike Greener. In addition to the people and stories and friends, being a newspaper photographer and multimedia producer was pretty much my dream job. A job that allows you to build relationships with people, help a community and be freshly curious about life all while geeking out with cameras, video gear and microphones is a hard one to beat. I honestly figured that I would be a newspaperman (or newspaperwebsiteman) for the rest of my life. I’d do great work and make a difference in Fairfield and then slowly make my way up the career ladder to the San Jose Mercury News. There I could work with my photojournalistic and multimedia heroes, people like Richard Koci-Hernandez, Dai Sugano and Pauline Lubens. However, the career ladder that existed when I started working at my college newspaper eight years ago has been eviscerated by a host of technological and societal changes. Now newspapers are becoming places where people spend a lot of time saying “you should have been here when…,” and I really didn’t want to spend the rest of my life thinking about what might have been had I not left and tried something new.

So here goes.

Chris

Hi All –

In June, Sara and I were lucky enough to spend some time in the south of France and Vienna! It was my first time in Europe, and I can’t wait to get back. The south of France was one of the nicest places I have ever been and the whole trip just made me feel so blessed. Here are a few of my favorite snaps from our trip.

Hope all is well –

Chris

A few months ago I was named Photographer of the Year by the San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Association! This is truly a huge honor, and it wouldn’t be possible without my co-workers Brad Zweerink and Mike Greener, my mentors Wes Pope and Richard Koci-Hernandez, and my beautiful girlfriend Sara.

It was the first time in the history of the organization that someone from a small newspaper has won the award, and all night people kept coming up to me and telling me how happy they were about that. In the photo above Bryan Patrick of the Sacramento Bee, who won the award last year, was telling me not to get to used to the trophy because he’s coming back for it next year.

Hope all is well and you can see the portfolio here.

Chris