“I work with scientists because otherwise it would just be art for no reason,” explains photographic artist Mandy Barker. Her award-winning plastic pollution photography has been published by a long list of organizations including Time magazine, Vogue, and CNN in 50 different countries.

Her alluring style tricks people into thinking they’re looking at something beautiful, then shocks them into reality. In 2012, she was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Environmental Bursary, sparking her career documenting plastic pollution. 

She’s covered plastic pollution across the world. She’s studied the effects of the 2011 Japanese tsunami and the waste crisis in Hong Kong, and recreated John Vaughan Thompson’s work with plankton in Ireland. She witnessed and photographed a single plastic bottle killing 526 hermit crabs. She engaged World Cup fans and the global public with her project Penalty, a collection of 769 soccer balls from ocean waste.

Barker created the lead image in Science’s 2 July feature story about plastic degradation. A part of her Shelf-Life series, the image shows an arrangement of plastics from 25 different countries collected on an expedition to Henderson Island in the south Pacific Ocean.

I spoke with Barker to learn more about her thought-provoking work. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: How did you begin as a photographer?

I wasn’t a photographer until I came across plastic on the beach. About 12 years ago I noticed plastic washing up. I saw lawn mowers, computer screens, TVs, children’s car seats. I was horrified. I wanted to show people what was going on.

This coincided with my master’s in photography. My instructors asked us to photograph outside our comfort zone. [At the time] I was doing black-and-white portraits on film. They pushed me to use color and the studio.

My first project was Indefinite. I collected different [plastic] objects and researched how long they degrade in the ocean. I learned that Styrofoam or polystyrene never [completely] break down.

Q: You’ve been photographing plastic for a long time. What motivated you to start?

A: If I find it shocking, I think other people will find it shocking. For example, tires wear away on the road, then wash down the drain, then out to sea and found in the stomachs of fish. I want to teach people something new.

Q: Explain your photography style in general.

A: Conceptual, because there’s always an idea behind what I’m doing. There’s a reason for doing it a certain way. For example, [the series] Beyond Drifting mimics 1800s plankton specimens, and the Soup series reflects what scientists call a suspension of plastics in the ocean. The project dictates how I produce it and style it.

Q: Explain your process in creating these composite images.

A: It’s very simple really. I have a black background on the floor, and I scatter different sized pieces of plastics. I start with the smallest pieces and randomly scatter them just as they are in the sea, then the medium-sized pieces, and then the larger pieces. I photograph each, then sandwich them together. It creates this three-dimensional quality. 

I experimented different ways. I thought of having the foreground sharp and the background at a distance like in the sea. Then I realized I wanted everything to be in focus. I wanted people to recognize actual products.

Q: How does the Shelf-Life series stand out from your other work? Where did the idea come from?

A: Henderson Island is protected and the most remote location I’ve ever been. It has a natural coral shelf where plastic has collected. The idea is that the plastic existed on a shelf like in a factory, in a shop or someone’s home, and then traveled 5000 kilometers to the shelf of Henderson Island. 

I’ve been on beaches around the world, Hong Kong, Europe, the United Kingdom, but people live in those places. It’s safe to assume plastics are dumped or floated through rivers to reach the shore. But when something’s 5000 kilometers away with nobody near it, how does that amount of plastic get there?

Q: To me this image from the Shelf-Life series nicely captures marine plastic pollution and its slow degradation. What did you want to convey with this picture?

A: As with all the Shelf-Life series, they’re all based on images an underwater scientist took of the coral around Henderson Island. It’s meant to look like coral on the ocean floor but made from plastic itself. I picked these plastics because I think it’s shocking to know creatures have bitten them. It’s sad to see the teeth marks in a place where those creatures don’t exist anymore.

Q: What did you learn from your experience with Shelf-Life?

A: To find products from Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Chile, the United States, the United Kingdom, all over the world in the middle of the south Pacific on an island [proves] there are no boundaries of plastic. There’s no way you can protect places, because the sea is its own master— it carries plastics wherever it’s going to carry it and dumps it on whatever shore.

Q: Explain your research process and how that influences your work.

A: I read a lot of academic journals online, so it might come from something I read. If I think it’s interesting, I’ll try to contact the person who wrote the research paper. I’ll ask where they did the study, is it possible to visit and see the plastic and photograph it? 

Getting things online was initially [what I did] in the early days. Now I’ve become more focused. [When possible] I like to be with the scientist in-person and see what they’re doing and have a closer relationship.

Q: What’s your working relationship with scientists? How do you collaborate? 

A: I’ve built up a long-standing connection with scientists all over the world. Now, I can ring them up and ask, what about this and how can we manage this? I’m not frightened of asking questions because I don’t want to give my opinion in case it’s wrong. 

Over the years they’ve seen how my work is viewed and people’s reactions. I think we do different things, but we’re on an even keel. I think they’re appreciative of me as much as I appreciate them. 

Q: What are you working on now? What’s next?

A: I’m finishing up a project on shearwater seabirds ingesting plastic on Lord Howe Island in Australia. This is the first time I’ve worked with creatures affected by plastic. Normally I just work with plastic. It was particularly harrowing, because the birds were dying on the shore. You’d pick them up, and actually feel the plastic crunch in its stomach. 

It’s a very emotional journey and a lot of pressure. I want it to really grab people and make them think, “Oh my god, that bird’s full of plastic.” I hope my work justifies this horrific issue.

To see more of Barker’s work, visit her website.

Emily Petersen is the Senior Photo Editor at Science.