Mandy Barker is a British photographer of international renown, recognized for her unique ability to transform one of the most pressing environmental disasters of our time—plastic pollution in the oceans—into images that resonate with both emotion and conscience. Her work is far more than photography: it is a form of protest, a visual testimony that speaks of a natural world overwhelmed by waste and of a beauty that endures even beneath the surface of crisis.
With a career spanning over fifteen years of visual research, Barker has collaborated with scientists, marine biologists, and academic institutions around the globe. She has taken part in scientific expeditions to remote locations, rigorously documenting the type, origin, and quantity of plastic waste found at sea. In some of these missions, she collected debris from tsunamis, UNESCO World Heritage islands, and endangered natural habitats—later bringing these materials into the studio to transform them into visual compositions that merge chaos and order, degradation and beauty.
This focus on scientific data, combined with a disarming visual sensitivity, has earned her a prominent place in the contemporary art scene. Her projects—such as SOUP, Beyond Drifting, and Altered Ocean—have been exhibited in major museums, including MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Fotografiska in Stockholm, and even at the United Nations headquarters. Her work is part of public collections and has also been presented in scientific, educational, and political settings, from the European Parliament to international conferences on marine debris.
Her work brings together beauty and truth, art and responsibility. Mandy Barker doesn’t simply represent a problem—she confronts it with every shot, turning aesthetics into a bridge to awareness. Her photographs are filled with fragments of plastic collected by hand, yet arranged with an almost choreographed visual intent, capable of provoking reflection without moralizing.
She has received awards, fellowships, and recognition from organizations such as the Royal Photographic Society and the National Geographic Society. But her true strength lies in her consistency and dedication: each project is the result of years of collection, documentation, and reflection.
Thanks to initiatives like In Plain Site, which brings art into streets and public squares, her work has reached audiences beyond the art world, opening up new spaces for environmental dialogue. Mandy Barker proves that photography is not only memory or form—it can also be a tool for change. A language that goes beyond the surface, like the ocean she loves and protects.
Here is her voice, direct and unfiltered: her words, her gaze, her vision.
Tell us a bit about yourself: how did your artistic journey begin, and what led you to focus on the issue of plastic pollution in the oceans?
I am Mandy Barker, an international award-winning photographer from England, Uk. My work involves representing the vast accumulation of marine plastic debris in the world’s oceans for which I have received global recognition. The motivation for my work is to raise awareness about this currently vital issue and harmful effect it has on marine life and ultimately ourselves.
I have had a keen interest in photography all my life, but began to study photography part-time and then progressed to study the MA photography course at De Montfort University, it was during this course that I first began to photograph plastic debris.
During my childhood I had always enjoyed being by the sea and collecting natural objects such as driftwood and shells. Increasingly over the years these natural objects have been taken over by man-made waste, especially plastic. I began to notice household appliances such as fridge freezers, computers, TV’s, etc, on the beach and begun to wonder how they got there. I felt this was an environmental concern that others should know about, and this is what stimulated my work – to spread awareness of this experience to a wider audience.
Your works combine aesthetics and environmental advocacy. How do you balance these two aspects in your work?
Although aesthetics are important, they are a device to draw the viewer in to look at the work. The important part is when they read the captions and information representing the facts of how we are affecting the oceans and changing environments that matters.
You have collaborated with scientists on various expeditions. How has this collaboration influenced your photographic practice?
Working with scientists gives my work credibility because it has to be accurate if it is to be believed. It is essential to the integrity of my work that I don’t distort information for the sake of making an interesting image and that I return the trust shown to me by the scientists who have supported my work.
How do you select the materials for your photographic projects?
The plastic items I choose are specifically to relate to a particular location, object or brand that need to be highlighted as a problem. I collect a variety of materials when I visit the coastlines, sometimes there will be a particular item that I collect over several years or sometimes I could find what I need in a couple of hours or an afternoon. For the image ‘EVERY… Snowflake is Different’ the white pieces of plastic were collected over 2 short visits to a nature reserve. For my recent work ‘Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections’ that raises awareness of fast fashion and synthetic fibres, I recovered clothing from the sea over 10 years.
What photographic techniques do you use to achieve the distinctive visual effect of your images?
I use a variety of different techniques to engage different audiences from analogue techniques to cyanotypes and film used in a camera I created from marine plastic debris. For the SOUP series the approach came about because of the message I wanted to portray, which is to represent mass accumulation. Photographing varying sizes of the plastic in groups, from tiny particles to larger foreground objects when placed on a black background and combined seem to create this feeling of depth themselves. Each project is a conscious decision to reflect a different aspect about the issue of plastic debris and my work is evolving all the time.
You have received numerous international accolades, what do these recognitions mean to you, and how have they influenced your career?
It has never been my aim to win awards or competitions, but they are a welcome sideline that do actually achieve notice from a different audience. When I began with my work in 2010 not many people had heard that there was plastic in the sea, but now the reach of my work has grown far beyond what I ever would have imagined. I have steadily increased awareness internationally over the past 15 years with the work being used by governments, in education curriculums around the world, at International Marine Debris Conferences and at the European Commission.
Your photographs have been exhibited in museums and institutions worldwide. Which exhibition experience has been most significant for you, and why?
I have had some significant exhibitions at some large institutions, but what matters for me is the interaction and reaction from the public, wherever this might be. I often get people who cry in my exhibitions. If there is a lot of positive response to the work and people want to know more about what they can do, then this for me is a successful exhibition no matter where it might be.
You participated in the In Plain Site Exhibition project: do you think that events like this one help bring the public closer to these environmental issues?
It is an opportunity to reach new audiences and community in another country, city or environment. It is a chance for people to engage one-to-one in a safe and open space, to draw the public in and then to inform and educate them about the issue.
Is there a moment or ritual that helps you enter the creative “flow” during your photo sessions?
I photograph in a dark basement with one directional light source so it is easy to imagine being under the sea. I try to imagine the ocean without plastic and to think about all the marine life that lives there.
Is there a book, film, or artist that has particularly inspired you in your artistic journey?
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is an iconic book I read many years ago that still stays with me. There are many artists, writers, musicians who collectively have inspired me, but the most important influence is nature itself and that could be anything from the way plastic presents itself on the shoreline, to the songs of the birds.
What advice would you give to a young photographer who wants to follow a similar path, combining art and environmental commitment?
Choose a subject that means something to you, because then there is a good chance that it will be interesting for others. Get advice and feedback from others, it doesn’t have to be necessarily from an academic institution, ask family, friends, people in the community, because these are people you want to reach. Get your work out there, put it up on the walls of café or shop because you never know who might see your work that could lead to your onward journey.
What are you currently working on? Is there a new project or theme that you’re passionate about and would like to explore in the future?
I am committed to photograph the issue of marine plastic debris for as long as I still can. There is new scientific research coming out all the time, with much more to be discovered that unfortunately I have enough work for the foreseeable future. We now have microplastic in our organs, our brains, and in our blood. I believe we will only discover the effects of this in the years to come.
For those who would like to learn more about her story and work, visit www.mandy-barker.com.
We also inform our Italian readers that Mandy Barker will be exhibiting in Sicily, in Gibellina, starting in June during the Gibellina PhotoRoad Festival, which celebrates artistic experimentation and large-scale open-air photographic installations. Her work will be displayed in the town’s central square and projected onto the monumental sphere of the Chiesa Madre. Some of the photographs shown in Gibellina will be new and not included in the In Plain Site exhibition.
In closing, we wish to thank Mandy Barker for this passionate interview and for her tireless commitment to giving voice to the sea and its wounds. Her photographs remind us that art can be a powerful tool to fight indifference and build a more conscious future.
Mariantonia Cambareri