With Plastic Being In Almost Ever News Broadcast,

that is, how damaging it is to the environment,

 we thought we would post a piece about waste plastic as art,

 photographer Mandy Barker, who is based in Leeds, UK, works closely with scientists to collect trash from our oceans and beaches on the edges of nearly every continent, one research expedition covered the debris field, 

 (stretching to Hawaii) that resulted from Japan’s 2011 tsunami and earthquake, she has also explored the Inner Hebrides in Scotland with Greenpeace,

 these visually appealing compositions consist of garbage that animals have attempted to chew, water-logged soccer balls,

 plastic pellets as well as tangles of fishing line, 

 the artist describes her work in a statement on her website, 'The aim of my work is to engage with and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction along with the subsequent message of awareness. The research process is a vital part of my development as the images I make are based on scientific fact which is essential to the integrity of my work'.

Barker is currently a recipient of a 2018 National Geographic Society grant. Her work is on display through April 22nd at Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art, at Photo London Art Fair in May 2018, at the Triennial of Photography in Hamburg in June, 2018, and at BredaPhoto in The Netherlands in September 2018,the artist’s book, Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals, was named one of the ten best books of 2017 by Smithsonian, You can see more of Barker’s photographs on her website as well as on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, by the way, as soon as you heard that straws and plastic drinks stirrers were going to be banned in the UK, did you rush out to buy shares in wood and companies that make wooden stirrers? just sit back and watch their shares sky rocket, as all of the companies around the world change from plastic to wooden stirrers!