Last year, photographer Jordan Bower used the ad space on a Toronto train to share his striking documentation of traveling in India. His goal was to encourage public discussion of the way we perceive other cultures, with the hope of overturning stereotypes and encouraging worldly curiosity. Now, using Kickstarter, he’s planning to do the reverse. “Walking to Mexico” is his ambitious plan to trek the 1,800 miles from the Vancouver to the Mexican border, while carefully documenting the people and places he encounters along the way. When he has completed the journey, he’ll display the resulting work in a public space in India, creating an exciting, cross-cultural dialogue of images and words.

We recently caught up with Jordan to ask a few questions about tackling such an unusual project. You can check out his answers below and support his ongoing project here here. 

This a complex and time-consuming life/art project to tackle. what seeded the idea and how did it grow?

I’ve been in love with travel since I spent a semester studying in Europe when I was 17. Since then, the story of my travel has been a general dissolution of the barriers that separated me from authentic experiences. By that I mean that I began to feel as if traveling was  complicated, even diminished when I viewed the world through an academic, professional, or Lonely Planet-style lens. These barriers encouraged me to idealize the cultures and places I was visiting and to see their existence as somehow separate from my own. I felt an intense desire to experience the world authentically, for all of its good and bad, and that drew me out of tour buses to explore a different style of travel. As I wandered farther afield, and especially as I began walking, I noticed how geographical travel was becoming an expression of the progress I was making on my inner journey. So the two types of travel — the outer and the inner — began to dovetail beautifully, and I have continually sought opportunities to tear down outer and inner barriers to be more and more real in my life. I feel so honored to be able to touch people in this way and I feel a big responsibility to create something that is worthy of their support and love.

What do you hope people will ultimately take from your voyages? Would you want them to follow in your literal foot-steps or are you trying to inspire something more conceptual — a change in perception?

What I’m working on is avoiding idealizing people, places, and relationships. When I look around me, I observe that many other people face a similar challenge: the language of advertising, for example, is all about how our lives and relationships would be much improved if only we purchased a certain product or implemented a specific change. It’s not that these claims are always lies — at times, these changes do bring positive benefits — it’s that the consequences of those choices are often more nuanced then the consumer tends to imagine beforehand. I think that comprehending the existence of nuance is key to taking responsibility, to becoming adult.

Your Kickstarter project specifically focuses on bringing images of American culture to india — what type of reaction are you anticipating? What do you think you will be showing that hasn’t been seen before in terms of Americans/American society?

I’ve found that most Indians I’ve met are eminently curious about foreigners. And the introduction of mass communications over the past decade tends to share ideas about America that are heavily biased. I think that seeing the subtleties and complexities of our society — poverty, interracial relationships, and homosexuality, but also family values, love, and intimacy — will be challenging to many conventionally held ideas. Frankly, I don’t know exactly what reaction to anticipate — that’s why I’m doing this! — but I know India well enough to suspect that it will be fascinating and meaningful.
 
Another component to this idea is reversing the flow of the conversation. Our language (i.e. First World vs. Third World) and our technological and economic superiority encourages the idea that our culture is better than a place like India. So when we consider some of the troubles in the world — the wars in Asia, the oil spills, the financial crises, climate change, etc. — it seems sensible to believe that the right answers are most likely to come either from us or from researchers working in our style of institutions in other countries. I want to challenge this assumption. My view is that presenting ourselves honestly and vulnerably is a greater step towards integrative peace than approaching people as a researcher, scholar, or aid worker.  I hope my photos — and the ways that I share them — will provoke a different type of understanding of our culture and our situation than even we can imagine. 

Any interesting experiences/encounters as a result of your Kickstarter project so far? How’s it been going?

It’s really important to me to approach the project in this way, through Kickstarter, to build a team of backers who want to participate in this journey along with me.  I love that Kickstarter offers an avenue for right economics: an honest, transparent opportunity to offer value for value trades that aren’t just about money.  It’s especially wonderful that Kickstarter provides a platform for me to discuss this idea with many people who I’ve never met before.  All the support I’ve received has been tremendously inspiring, but I am particularly touched by the donations from strangers, especially ones in smaller denominations.  When you think about it, it’s a big deal to go through the process of registering and putting in your credit card info because you want to send someone $5 or $10 as a way of encouraging them in their quest. I feel so honored [to be able to touch people in this way and I feel a big responsibility to create something that is worthy of their support and love.

Your leave date approaches quickly, how are you feeling?

I’ve tried not to think about it, in a way, even though I have been busy with planning and purchasing supplies.  I know already that it will be different than I expect, and that uncertainty is already creating a lot of vulnerability for me.  But another great part about Kickstarter is that I’ve made a commitment to 113 backers that I will follow through on this, and that helps me summon the courage to take the first step.  I have a nervous excitement that I’m sure will become more pronounced over the next few weeks; I can’t wait to begin.