Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. 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. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.
This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.
Toothpicks, 2008
Plastic Cups, 2008
Barbie Dolls
Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006. 
Plastic Bottles
Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.
Constitution
feet in five panels Depicts 83,000 Abu Ghraib prisoner photographs, equal to the number of people who have been arrested and held at US-run detention facilities with no trial or other due process of law, during the Bush Administration's war on terror. 
Skull With Cigarette
[based on a painting by Van Gogh] Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months. 
Jet Trails
Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. 
Prison Uniforms
feet in six vertical panels Depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in . 
Cell Phones,
Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. 
Paper Bags
Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour. 
Cans Seurat
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds. 
Paper Cups
Depicts 410,000 paper cups, equal to the number of disposable hot-beverage paper cups used in the US every fifteen minutes. 
Cigarettes
Depicts 65,000 cigarettes, equal to the number of American teenagers under age eighteen who become addicted to cigarettes every month. 
Building Blocks,
16 feet tall x 32 feet wide in eighteen square panels, each sized 62x62". Depicts nine million wooden ABC blocks, equal to the number of American children with no health insurance coverage in 2007. 
Denali Denial
Depicts 24,000 logos from the GMC Yukon Denali, equal to six weeks of sales of that model SUV in 2004. 
Pain Killers
Depicts 213,000 Vicodin pills, equal to the number of emergency room visits yearly in the US related to misuse or abuse of prescription pain killers. 
Handguns
Depicts 29,569 handguns, equal to the number of gun-related deaths in the US in 2004. 
Plastic Bags
Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds. 
Office Paper
Depicts 30,000 reams of office paper, or 15 million sheets, equal to the amount of office paper used in the US every five minutes. 
Valve Caps
feet in five vertical panels Depicts 3.6 million tire valve caps, one for each new SUV sold in the US in 2004. 
Ben Franklin
feet wide by 10.5 feet tall in three horizontal panels Depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq. 
Energizer
Depicts 170,000 disposable Energizer batteries, equal to fifteen minutes of Energizer battery production. 
Shipping Containers
Depicts 38,000 shipping containers, the number of containers processed through American ports every twelve hours. 
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