Running the Numbers With Art

“This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on.

My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. ”

—Chris Jordan on Running the Numbers

:: MORE VIDEO
Chris Jordan on the Colbert Report
Photographer Chris Jordan shows Stephen Colbert how he makes art out of our excessive waste.

:: PHOTO ESSAY
Chris Jordan
Startling images present contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on.

Intolerable Beauty (DVD)
In this short video for young people, Chris narrates a visual tour through his consumerism images. He ends with a call to action for America’s youth: to join the movement that is changing the world.

Find out more at www.chrisjordan.com