‘Jacket lining (Rhodomenia ignotus)’ from the series Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections by Mandy Barker FRPS
At first glance the images of UK-based photographer Mandy Barker FRPS seem to show fragile pieces of seaweed and other ocean plant life.
Look closer and they take on a much more sinister identity.
Barker’s latest book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections is a study of discarded clothing fragments found by the artist around the UK coast. The series, photographed using garments found on 121 UK beaches across a decade, is Barker’s wake-up call to the impact of fast fashion. It was sparked when Barker spotted a scrap of synthetic cloth among the rocks.
“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life,” she says. “Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years.”
The resulting collection was inspired by the work of pioneering botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, whose Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843) is considered the first work with photographic illustrations – the first photobook.
Barker is already recognised internationally for Our Plastic Ocean, a long-term series focusing on marine plastic debris. She was awarded the RPS/TPA Environmental Bursary in 2012, enabling her to join a scientific expedition which sailed from Japan to Hawaii to research the accumulation of plastic in the tsunami debris field of the Pacific Ocean. Barker achieved a Fellowship Distinction from the Society following Altered Ocean, her 2019 solo exhibition at RPS Gallery in Bristol.
Below, she explains how her homage to Atkins came about.
You collected 202 fragments of clothing from 121 beaches around the British coastline for Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections. Why?
It was important to recover clothing from a range of locations to show that items wash up on the beaches of John o’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in the south of England, and that no outstanding area of natural beauty is exempt from plastic pollution. Recovering items from around the coastline of Britain, several thousand miles long, was a huge task, which is why it has taken ten years. Many of these trips were done alongside exhibitions, talks or workshops I gave in the locality.
During this time, I collected a wide range of discarded clothing to show I did not only find socks or items that could have been left by someone visiting the beach. I recovered coats, dresses, school uniform and parts of clothing identified from different eras such as the 1970s, to show synthetic clothing exists in the sea as a form of plastic pollution.
What role did the photographic pioneer and botanist Anna Atkins play in your latest work – and what would she have made of it?
Anna Atkins was the inspiration for the visual side of the project. When I first viewed her original prints and groundbreaking book at the Royal Society, I was stunned by its beauty and significance for the way Atkins combined art and science, and I felt it was an opportunity to engage people with a current issue.
I think as a lover of nature Atkins would have been as disturbed as I am with what is happening to our oceans and I like to think she would have been pleased to be used as inspiration for a project that I hope will go on to inform the world.
Cyanotype Imperfections makes a stark statement about the modern phenomenon of fast fashion. What do you hope it will achieve?
I see the series and book as a call to action, which is why it was important to publish the work to reach a wider audience. Whether the book ends up on a coffee table or bookshelf, it is my intention that conversations around the project will increase awareness about the fast fashion industry, which is currently having the greatest impact on global climate change.
If I am disturbed by information concerning the fast fashion industry, there is a good chance other people will think the same, and if through my work I can pass this on it will allow people to make informed decisions about what they purchase and dispose of, hopefully connecting with the viewer’s social conscience.
This book – and the series Our Plastic Ocean – are deceptively beautiful given they highlight our role in global marine pollution. Why make your images so alluring?
It is my intention to create a visually attractive image or book, to draw the viewer in to view the image and then to shock them with the fact of what is being represented.
Initially when I photographed plastic as it was found on the shore, the images didn’t hold the viewer’s attention or leave a lasting impact. I realised that creating a visually attractive aesthetic drew people in, and once you have their attention, you have the platform to inform about the problem.
‘The world’ from the series Penalty by Mandy Barker FRPS
What next for you?
I have just returned from the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) conference in South Africa supported by National Geographic which helps remove barriers, and for African visual storytellers to create their own narrative. Creatively, having represented the subject of fast fashion close to home, I would like to expand on how microfibres are affecting human health and highlight clothing disposal around the world.
Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections by Mandy Barker FRPS is published by GOST at £50.
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Image titles, left, top to bottom: ‘Lining (with algae) (Grateloupia intra)’; ‘Parka (Ectocarpus fictus)’; ‘Two blouses (Asperococcus indusium)’; ‘Patterned blouse (Laminaria materia)’. All from the series Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections by Mandy Barker FRPS
Image titles, right, top to bottom: ‘Jersey boxers (Gigartina sunday)’; ‘Nylon tights (Conferva tibia)’; ‘Tank top (Cystoseira summus)’; ‘Synthetic fur hood (Myrionema palliolum)’. All from the series Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections by Mandy Barker FRPS