the world through Chris Jordan's eyes

It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words, but often it is a picture combined with words that provides the most resonating message. Last week, I came across the work of Chris Jordan, an artist who's major works focus on visually capturing our collective impact on the planet and ourselves.

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, is his most recent collection, focuses on capturing our culture through visual quantifications, with images depicting statistics such as the number of SUV's we drive, the number of cigarettes we smoke, and the number of plastic bottles we discard. While the photographs themselves are brilliant, often stunning works of design, it is the captions—the words that accompany each work—that make each image truly powerful. These words remind us that Jordan's works are not simply talented framings of inanimate objects, they are vivid explorations on our impact, through a resonating medium where the visual meets the literal.

When you're done browsing through his image galleries, be sure to glance at his artist's statement, which strikes a frightening chord:

"The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits."

While our anonymity and our consumerist drive aren't going anywhere, perhaps we can begin to think twice before we swipe. Jordan is certainly pulling out all stops to encourage us to do so. He explains, "So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake."

Since coming across his website, I haven’t been able to get his starkly honest images—and their accompanying messages—out of my head. Intrigued by his explanation of Running the Numbers--"My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended."--I hope I have the chance to see an actual installation. (Kids out on the east coast: Von Lintel Gallery, New York, June 14 to July 30. Kids out on the west: Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, June 30-September). www.chrisjordan.com