Mandy Barker is included in a shortlist of 12 Artists selected for the prestigious
Prix Pictet Award 2017 Space, which opens at the
Victoria & Albert Museum on the 6 of May."The theme for the seventh cycle of the Prix Pictet is Space – offers a wide range of creative possibilities and a strong set of connections to the Prix Pictet’s overriding theme of sustainability. It is a deliberately broad theme that could embrace subjects as diverse as overpopulation, territorial dispute, air pollution, cyber space, wind borne diseases, hurricanes, as well the fragility of the planet’s great wildernesses and our tendency to fill space – from the oceans to outer space – with junk and many things besides." (
From the Prix Pictet website)
“The motivation for my work is to raise awareness about the issue of plastic pollution in World oceans, and the detrimental effect it has on the environment and marine life. My images aim to stimulate an emotional response in the viewer by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction alongside disturbing statistics”.
-- Mandy Barker
Mandy Barker (UK, 1964) studied MA Photography at De Montfort University, England. She has received international recognition for her work involving marine plastic debris with her ongoing series, SOUP, having been published in over 30 countries including, TIME, The Guardian, The British Journal of Photography, National Geographic, VICE, for Greenpeace and on CNN. The motivation for her work is to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the world's oceans while highlighting its harmful affect on marine life and ultimately ourselves.
In 2012 she was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Environmental bursary enabling her to join scientists in a research expedition to photograph the accumulation of marine plastic debris in the tsunami debris field in the Pacific Ocean. The trip which sailed from Japan to Hawaii allowed her to create the series SHOAL, which was selected for Critical Mass Top 50 2014.
Barker’s work has featured in group exhibitions worldwide including The Photographer’s Gallery, London, The Aperture Foundation, New York, and The Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong. Her work was part of the exhibition, GYRE, at The Anchorage Museum, Alaska, that went on to tour across the United States. Her work has also been exhibited as part of the Syngenta Photography Award Exhibition 2015, FotoFest 2016 Biennale - Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet, Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF), FotoIstanbul, and Noorderlicht 2016 Photofestival ARENA, Museum Belvedere, The Netherlands. At UNSEEN Photo Fair 2016 Barker’s work was presented as part of ‘Anthroposceneries’, where she was nominated for the Meijburg Art Commission. She has received many awards including as a series winner of the LensCulture Earth Award 2015 and winner of the International Photography Award (IPA) 2014 in the Environmental Professional category.
Barker engages the issue about plastic pollution through photography, she was invited as a guest speaker to the Plastic Free Seas youth conference 2013, Hong Kong, and more recently as part of the Marfa Dialogues discussions at The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas. She has contributed to many book publications and articles, including CNN International, concerning arts relationship with the environment. She was interviewed for 'Connect the World' on CNN News US, for her series PENALTY during the time of the FIFA World Cup 2014, and her work was featured for Earth Day 2012 on TIME's 'LightBox', and also on National Geographic's 'Proof' for Earth Day 2016.
In May 2017 Mandy will board the Greenpeace UK's 33m sailing vessel, the Beluga and will tour Scotland’s coastline to document the impact of ocean plastic on some of the most iconic marine life and precious landscapes in the UK.
The book "Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals" will be published by Overlapse and a book signing will take place at Photo London in East Wing's stand C-02 on Saturday 20 & Sunday 21May.
For more information go to Mandy's websiteor
visit her Artist page on this website.
