©Chris Jordan, Venus, 2011 60×103″ in one panel; or 8×13 feet in three panels Depicts 240,000 plastic bags, equal to the average number of plastic bags consumed around the world every ten seconds (2010 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Venus, 2011 60×103″ in one panel; or 8×13 feet in three panels Depicts 240,000 plastic bags, equal to the average number of plastic bags consumed around the world every ten seconds (2010 statistic). Detail

Each year during Earth Week I curate a collection of photographic projects from artists who are working to make the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques. The arts – and the visual arts in particular – have a unique capacity to confront audiences with uncomfortable truths, provoke meaningful discussion, foster empathy, and inspire individuals to take action on today’s most pressing issues.

Today, we’re looking at Chris Jordan’s project, Running the Numbers: Portraits of Human Mass Culture (2004 to 2018).

These bodies of work are linked by this thematic lens: making the often-invisible nature of the global climate and the ecological crisis more visible using conceptual, lens-based art techniques.

©Chris Jordan, Gyre, 2009, 60×90″ (152x229cm); or 8×13 feet in three panels Depicts 2.5 million pieces of plastic collected from the Pacific Ocean.

©Chris Jordan, Gyre, 2009, 60×90″ (152x229cm); or 8×13 feet in three panels Depicts 2.5 million pieces of plastic collected from the Pacific Ocean. Detail

This photo-based series looks at human mass culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image depicts a mass phenomenon: the amount of chemical pesticide applied to soils around the world every day; the number of tuna taken from the world’s oceans every fifteen minutes; the number of cigarette butts littered into the environment every second, and so on.

©Chris Jordan, Caps Seurat, 2011 60×90″ (152x229cm); or 7×11 feet (224x335cm) in three panels Depicts 400,000 bottle caps, equal to the average number of plastic bottles consumed in the US every minute (2010 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Caps Seurat, 2011 60×90″ (152x229cm); or 7×11 feet (224x335cm) in three panels Depicts 400,000 bottle caps, equal to the average number of plastic bottles consumed in the US every minute (2010 statistic). DETAIL

My newer projects turn in a radically different direction: toward the transformative power of beauty. I have come to believe in beauty as a kind of energetic medicine to heal individual and collective trauma and remind us about what matters on a basic level. In the increasing insanity and mental chaos of our world, I see the celebration of beauty not as a form of avoidance or denial, but as a compass that points back toward connection with essential parts of ourselves. My ongoing work is made with this philosophy in mind, and I am excited to share several years of these new projects here. They are all organized under the title “Beauty Emerging.”

©Chris Jordan, Barbie Dolls, 2008 60×86″ (152x2203cm) Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the average number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed every month in the US (2006 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Barbie Dolls, 2008 60×86″ (152x2203cm) Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the average number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed every month in the US (2006 statistic). DETAIL

I am interested in how images representing these quantities might affect the mind differently than the raw data alone. Psychologists tell us that our brains cannot meaningfully grasp quantities higher than a few thousand; yet every day we hear about phenomena characterized by numbers in the millions, billions, even trillions. This mind-numbing information is all we have to go on, because the phenomena themselves are invisible at their full scale, spread across the world, impossible to photograph or otherwise behold in any way with our senses. In the absence of comprehension, it is hard to feel anything about these things, leading to a disconnection that puts us at risk for apathy.

©Chris Jordan, Whale, 2011 44×82″ (112x208cm) Depicts 50,000 plastic bags, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile in the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic). Based on a photo by Bryant Austin. 11 – 12) Gyre II, 2011 44×56″ (112x142cm) Depicts 50,000 cigarette lighters, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile of the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Whale, 2011 44×82″ (112x208cm) Depicts 50,000 plastic bags, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile in the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic). Based on a photo by Bryant Austin. 11 – 12) Gyre II, 2011 44×56″ (112x142cm) Depicts 50,000 cigarette lighters, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile of the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic). DETAIL

“Running the Numbers” attempts to visually confront a few of these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed images assembled from tens of thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise questions about the roles we each play as individuals in a human collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

©Chris Jordan, Gyre II, 2011 44×56″ (112x142cm) Depicts 50,000 cigarette lighters, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile of the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Gyre II, 2011 44×56″ (112x142cm) Depicts 50,000 cigarette lighters, equal to the average number of pieces of floating plastic per square mile of the Pacific Ocean (2010 statistic). DETAIL

©Chris Jordan, Skull with Cigarette, 2007 60×84″ (152x213cm) Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months (2006 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Skull with Cigarette, 2007 60×84″ (152x213cm) Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months (2006 statistic).DETAIL

©Chris Jordan, Over the Moon, 2011 44×44″ (102x102cm) Depicts 29,000 credit cards

©Chris Jordan, Over the Moon, 2011 44×44″ (102x102cm) Depicts 29,000 credit cards DETAIL

©Chris Jordan, Three Second Meditation 2011 44×44″ (112x112cm) Depicts 9,960 mail order catalogs, equal to the average number of mail order catalogs that are printed, shipped, delivered, and discarded in the US every three seconds (2010 statistic).

©Chris Jordan, Three Second Meditation 2011 44×44″ (112x112cm) Depicts 9,960 mail order catalogs, equal to the average number of mail order catalogs that are printed, shipped, delivered, and discarded in the US every three seconds (2010 statistic). DETAIL

©Chris Jordan, Denali Denial, 2006 60×75″ (152x191cm) Depicts 24,000 logos from the GMC Denali, equal to six weeks of sales of that model SUV in 2004.

©Chris Jordan, Denali Denial, 2006 60×75″ (152x191cm) Depicts 24,000 logos from the GMC Denali, equal to six weeks of sales of that model SUV in 2004.

Chris Jordan Bio: 

I am a photographer and artist, best known for my projects that probe the dark underbelly of our culture of mass consumption. For many years I have been interested in the tragedies and ironic complexities of our many forms of waste. My work has tried to edge-walk the lines between art and activism, beauty and horror, abstraction and representation, and the visible and the invisible. If feels worth it to me to face the external landscapes of the shadow side of our culture, as a way of encountering something internally about ourselves that is otherwise hard to see. My approach is less about blaming or judging, and more about honoring the complexity of these phenomena. Series made with these intentions include “Intolerable Beauty,” “Running the Numbers,” “Midway,” and “In Katrina’s Wake.” The arc of this work culminated in my film “Albatross” (2018), about birds on a remote island in the Pacific whose bodies are filled with plastic.

My newer projects turn in a radically different direction: toward the transformative power of beauty. I have come to believe in beauty as a kind of energetic medicine to heal individual and collective trauma and remind us about what matters on a basic level. In the increasing insanity and mental chaos of our world, I see the celebration of beauty not as a form of avoidance or denial, but as a compass that points back toward connection with essential parts of ourselves. My ongoing work is made with this philosophy in mind, and I am excited to share several years of these new projects here. They are all organized under the title “Beauty Emerging.”

“Belleza Desesperada” is an ongoing series made in the stunningly beautiful and critically threatened fjords in southern Chile. “Ecstatic Desolation,” also made in Patagonia, contemplates the meditative stillness and subtle tonal complexities that emerge in long exposures of the moving sea and sky. “Waveforms” examines the ever-changing surface of the ocean, revealing intricate magical forms captured in reflected sunlight at extremely fast shutter speeds. “Formations” is a series of photo constructions that explore complex visual geometry and symmetries, all made from my photographs of forests and landscapes. “Thirteen Moons” is a photographic devotional to the rising of the full moon, and “In Wildness” compiles thirty years of my photos of the living world. I hope you enjoy this work.

Instagram: @chrisjordanphotogallery