The Photography festival ‘PHOTO IS:RAEL’ hosted a press conference in relation to COP26, featuring photographer Mandy Barker.
Her newest series of work named ‘FFS Still’ has just been released and coincides with the start of COP26 to raise awareness about climate change and plastic pollution. The series is about Shearwater birds on Lord Howe Island, their lives, the beautiful environment they live in, in contrast to the gradual downward spiral towards death due to ingesting plastic. The abbreviation in the title of her work which should be ‘FFSH’ to represent Flesh-Footed Shearwater, was changed to ‘FFS’ in order to try and reach a younger audience; due to the frustration she feels in terms of marine plastic pollution.
Barker learnt when she accompanied scientists to the island in 2019, that Shearwater birds were feeding their chicks plastic that they had found at sea, causing them to starve and eventually lead to death. She even saw herself that the birds were dying on the shore, “unable to fly because of the weight of plastic in their stomachs,” she also mentioned how “Nothing will ever come close to the sensation of picking up this wild and stunning bird to feel and hear plastic crunch within its stomach… on returning home from this expedition I felt I had witnessed a crime” . Which is what inspired her to create these images, as a response to the declining amount of Shearwater on Lord Howe Island.
https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1455449306492702721/photo/1
This image was uploaded to Mandy Barker’s twitter (1) Mandy Barker (@plasticpieces) / Twitter, one of the images which was part of the series.
Her intention is to create a legacy as a result of this series, for the Shearwater birds before them, and the ones who will continue to suffer. Which is why Mandy wants her work to be seen around the world, in order to provoke change.