The Documentary Photographer Podcast

In this episode, you’ll hear Mandy Baker talk about her project Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals, which draws attention to plastic pollution in the environment—seas and oceans in particular. From the project exhibition press release:  Plankton form a diverse group of microscopic marine organisms living in the water column, not able to swim against the current; they exist in a drifting, floating, state. In this series by Mandy Barker, unique ‘specimens’ of this animal species relate to the pioneering discoveries made by marine biologist John Vaughn Thompson in Cobh and Cork Harbour during the 1800’s.    Mandy Barker with of her photographs on display at the Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Ireland, 27th May, 2017  Presented as microscopic samples, objects of marine plastic debris, recovered from the same location, mimic Thompson’s early scientific discoveries of plankton. The work represents the degradation and contamination of plastic particles in the natural environment, by creating the percepti