Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Earth Day Wake Up Call

{ Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait}


I like to call these photos and statistics "An American Wake-up Call." Hopefully the images will encourage you to take steps to lessen your ecological footprint. Chris Jordan's work speaks for itself but for a bit of description, his own words are best:

"This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. 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. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images."

Cans Seurat, 2007, 60x92"
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

partial zoom

detail at actual size

Paper Bags, 2007, 60x80"
Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

detail zoom at actual size

Plastic Bags, 2007, 60x72"
Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.

detail zoom at actual size