SOUP is a description given to plastic debris suspended in the sea, with particular reference to the mass accumulation that exists in an area of The North Pacific Ocean known as the Garbage Patch.
The series aims to engage with and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer, by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction and an awareness of the disturbing statistics of dispersed plastics having no boundaries, which result ultimately, in the death of sea creatures.
All the plastics photographed have been salvaged from beaches around the world and represent a global collection of debris that has existed for varying amounts of time in the worldâ??s oceans.
Mandy Barkerâ??s work aims to engage with and stimulate an emotional â?¨response in the viewer by combining a contradiction â?¨between initial aesthetic attraction and subsequent messageâ?¨ of awareness. Her work has been exhibited both in the UK and internationally, where she is been recognized with some global awards. The impact of oceanic plastic is an â?¨area Mandy has been committed to for the past few years â?¨and is continuing to pursue through innovative visual â?¨interpretation.
Awards Barker has been nominated twice for the prestigious Prix Pictet Award in 2012 & 2013, the world’s leading photographic award in sustainability. In 2015 she was a winner of the LensCulture Earth Awards and selected as a finalist for the WYNG Master’s Award in Hong Kong. She was the International Photography Awards 2014 winner for her series, PENALTY, which involved the collection of 769 marine debris soccer balls from around the World and which was also recognised as a finalist by the LensCulture Visual Storytelling Awards 2014. Barker was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50 of 2014 and exhibited at the Syngenta Scarcity/Waste Photography Awards 2015, Somerset House, London.
