As any student of Jordan’s work can tell you, his filmmaking is only a hard earned extension of the storytelling and shot framing he honed as a still shooter. If nurture can be credited over nature. Jordan has the gift of eye; he seems to see the word as if through a frame. In still photography or film, Jordan’s subjects—people or settings—are presented like stand alone works of art, each composition thought through like brush strokes on canvas. In his films, such as the short documentary “Treeline” he created for Patagonia, these brooding, gallery worthy images flow through your sternum and land with weight. The experience can almost feel overwhelming. But because his cinematic timing and ability to score music, audio, and dialogue is also flawless, you can’t let go of the thread.

Jordan was drawn to film, and now feature length film, because of the opportunity to tell longer stories. “I suppose that when I was doing photography it was more piecemeal,” he says. “With film I can see ideas through from the beginning. Filmmaking is more linear. You have to collect more of those moments for a film to work. But that’s the essence of filmmaking. This struggle between how much you leave in how much you leave out. I find film more painful because of what it takes from you. It can be quite tortuous.”