chris jordan photography

hold onto your hats folks, as you look at these unreal large scale works from seattle artist chris jordan. this series is entitled running the numbers and depicts the surprising (and frequently depressing) statistics relating to consumerism, politics and crime — literally. chris created this series to have a look at contemporary american culture through the harsh lens of statistics. each image portrays a specific quantity of something (seen below, in increasing zoom view, in order): one million plastic cups, the amount used on us airline flights every six hours; 32,000 barbie dolls, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the us in 2006; or 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005.

chris has created these images in the hopes we will better relate to these sobering facts by visual communication, rather than simply staring at the plain, bottom-line numbers we see in the paper or in books. these very large, highly detailed prints are assembled from thousands of smaller photographs, and the goal is to recognize the impact, actions and importance of each of us, single individuals, in the ever-growing, perplexing and intense culture we inhabit.

chris feels that the impact of these prints is lost a bit when viewing on the computer screen, but i tend to disagree. sure it would be more profound an experience to see these grand-scale works in person, but to me, the point and the fact come through loud and clear, and that’s enough in my book to make a lasting impression.

chris is currently exhibiting this series now through june 8th, 2008 at the allen art museum at oberlin college in ohio. be sure to check out more of these amazing works on chris’ website, and stay tuned too — this series is a work in progress and new images will be posted as they are completed.

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