B&h Photography Podcast

It’s worth the time to see the work of photographer Mandy Barker before listening to this episode. Take a glance at the B&H Photography Podcast homepage or Barker’s website to get a sense of the simple but imaginative images she creates; it will certainly enrich the experience of hearing her speak about photographing plastic garbage, which is what she has found to be her calling.    Of course, we’re being a bit facetious with that comment, but as we discover from our conversation with Barker, it really is the issue of marine plastic—the plastic waste that litters our oceans and beaches—that brought her to photography and continues to push her to create captivating images with the intention of bringing awareness to this increasingly severe problem.   The colorful and almost playful images she creates with marine plastic belie the tremendous damage this refuse is doing to ecosystems around the world, and in some cases, in the most remote of islands and coastal lands. And it is this ability to create likeabl