You have seen Copeopod langisticus (above) before 鈥� but it didn鈥檛 look quite like this. The faux-Linnaean title, along with the expired film stock and doctored camera on which the image was shot, serves to veil a common object: the plastic binding from a six-pack of beer.
Mandy Barker photographed this in a style that suggests a plate from a 19th-century natural history, and has gone on to fashion a book of such plates (bottom). Other objects featured here above and below include a Barbie doll鈥檚 arm, plastic flowers and a tricycle wheel; all are scavenged from the coastline of Cork, Ireland. The place is significant for Barker, for it was here, in 1816, that marine biologist John Vaughan Thompson was posted as a military surgeon. In Cobh harbour, he became the first person to observe the small, immotile organisms known as plankton.
Plankton ingest plastic particles, mistaking them for food, and because many larger creatures depend on plankton as a crucial source of food, the toxic load exerted by plastic on the marine environment increases year on year.
鈥淭he aim of my work is to create a visually attractive image that draws the viewer in, then shocks them with what is represented,鈥� Barker explains. 鈥淭his contradiction between beauty and fact is intended to make people question how their shoe, computer, or ink cartridge ended up in the sea.鈥�
The project has seen Barker shortlisted for this year鈥檚 Prix Pictet photography prize. Nominated work on the theme of 鈥渟pace鈥� is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from 6 to 28 May.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎nimal or mineral?鈥�
