Every once in a while I stumble upon the work of Chris Jordan, a photographer who explores issues of importance through creative large scale works. Through his work we are able to see how a collection of smaller actions or events can add up over time, or through the sheer number of people involved, and have a huge and globe altering impact.

It’s easy to lose site of our actions, both positive and negative, because of the simple fact that when you hear new statistics today, the numbers are so extremely large that our minds lack the ability to comprehend them….1 million service organizations, 2 million plastic bottles (every 5 minutes), the current Federal Burden $56,400,000,000,000.

I wanted to share a new piece of his that I thought was particularly moving.

E. Pluribus Unum, 2009

[description from his site] This image depicts the names of one million organizations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice, and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture.

The actual number of such organizations is unknown, but Paul Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest” project estimates the number at somewhere between one and two million, and growing. If the lines in this piece were straightened out, they would make an unbroken line of names, in a ten point font, twenty seven miles long.

Many thanks to Paul Hawken, Craig S. Kaplan, and Robert Bosch for their collaboration on this project. The printed size is 45×45 feet.

To view this image, we’ll start way up close, only a few inches away from the canvas. In a small font you can see straight lines made from the names of organizations:

Standing back a bit, you see lots of these lines angling and intersecting:

…and stepping further back, you see more lines of names: