As an anthropology major, Jordan Chlapecka’s academic endeavors have always been driven by theory and analysis, motivated by his desire to examine how people function within structures and how humans create the systems that allow for societies to grow.

Beyond this rigorous emphasis on anthropological studies, however, Jordan also has a creative side. This is where his second major, creative advertising, comes in. And one mustn’t forget that he also has a minor in photography. 

So where do these three seemingly disparate interests meet? In Taos, New Mexico, apparently.

Following his freshman year, Jordan decided to spend a summer semester at SMU-in-Taos to pursue photography. While there, he familiarized himself with the area, navigating his way through the unique structures and landscapes that existed amidst a backdrop of endless skies. Although he dabbled in photographing the region, his mission was first and foremost to gain an intimacy with the landscape, because, as he says, it is “important to understand the physicality of what you want to shoot” before attempting to capture its beauty in a photograph.

One of the most poignant finds on this first trip was a series of trailers sparsely strewn throughout Taos and the surrounding area. Every once in a while, sometimes in the most unlikely of places, trailers would pop up amidst the beauty of the natural landscape. To Jordan, these trailers (his photographs of which would later become part of his first exhibition) were a symbol for how “humans implant themselves into nature.”

Fascinated with the area and wanting to further his studies, Jordan returned to Taos the following summer with plans to take an upper level anthropology course taught by Dr. Sunday Eislet, assistant professor and director of the SMU Archaeology Field School.

In his creative advertising studies, Jordan says he was taught the importance of “exhausting an idea to its full potential, following through with a statement from beginning to end.” This ideology was the catalyst that pushed Jordan to construct a more ambitious creative project to undertake upon his return to Taos: shooting a documentary film from start to finish.

After speaking with Professor Eislet about his desire to create a documentary over the course of the summer, the two collaborated with Associate Professor of Photography Debora Hunter to come up with the subject of Jordan’s project: the annual mudding of the famous Saint Francis de Assisi church in Taos. 

Because the 18th-century church is both rich in history and arguably one of the most photographed and painted churches in the nation – the subject of works by the likes of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe – the project was, for Jordan, “an artist’s dream.”

Landscape panorama from Taos, NM

With just two weeks and his DSLR camera, Jordan watched as the community came together not only to recoat the church with new adobe, but also to celebrate the rich tradition that has been unifying the community since the 1980s. 

The most challenging part of the documentary was not in filming it, but rather in the post-production process. Jordan wanted watching the film to feel “as if the viewer had walked into the process of mudding and was there talking with the church members,” to be an experience rather than a passive activity.

Jordan’s undergraduate work culminated with his gallery debut, “Strings of Thought.” In the exhibit, a compilation of photographs focused on human structure within nature was displayed alongside the premiere of the documentary, entitled “The Enjarre: Layers,” in the Doolin Gallery from April 10-12, 2011.

Recently accepted to the Performance Studies Master of Arts program at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Jordan departs for New York in June. His graduate studies will focus on performance and cultural ritual, analyzed anthropologically as well as theatrically. “In his graduate program, he will be able to draw upon the various bodies of knowledge that he has explored here at SMU and use his considerable photographic skills to collect and record data,” said Professor Hunter. 

Jordan’s example shows the kind of creative opportunities available for interdisciplinary study at Meadows. Learn more about interdisciplinary studies at Meadows.

A cyanotype from "String of Thought"