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.
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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�
