statistics

The latest photographic work of Chris Jordan brings awareness and human scale to everyday consumption patterns in the United States. In the project, titled Running the Numbers, An American Self Portrait, distant statistical numbers are suddenly put into perspective and visualized as oversize composite images, illustrating the intensity of industrial society.

In one example, a wall-sized photograph depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number of bottles used in the United States in five minutes. Another massive image shows 1.14 million brown paper bags, representing the amount consumed every hour.