Microplastics in the Oceans

This artist’s book project takes the form of photographs, scientific field notes, sketches, and specimen slides and is inspired by the work of the British naturalist John Vaughan Thompson,who studied plankton in Ireland during the 1800s. Derived from the Greek adjective πλαγκτός (planktos), meaning wanderer or drifter, plankton are largely microscopic animals that drift along the ocean’s currents and provide a vital food sources for diverse ocean life, from oysters to whales. The artist Mandy Barker’s “discoveries”, however, are not plankton but rather miniscule pieces of plastic in the oceans. The vast majority of plastic is made from petrochemicals derived from the processes of extraction or fracking of fossil fuels. When fish and other sea creatures eat plastic along with plankton, the safety and viability of the entire food chain, including human health, are impacted in ways scientists are only beginning to understand.

Mandy Barker
Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals
[United Kingdom]: Overlapse, 2017

Additional Information

Purchased with funds from The Hastings Libraries Endowment, 2017.

To look through the book, visit: https://vimeo.com/236208798