Reducing plastic waste has been a passion of mine for a few years now. I notice when people could use a reusable product instead of single-use plastic. This made me want to create a photographic series that showed how the plastic we are using is hurting animals, us, and the planet. I did some research thinking about how people are affecting the planet and how the planet is affecting us. I also researched different facts that people might not know about plastic, the different kinds of reusable products, the type plastic people are using, and different companies that are using scare tactics in advertising. One in particular was the PSA were accidents aren’t accidents. They can be prevented. (Workplace Safety Commercials. Canadian Workplace Safetly and Insurance Board, 2006) One quote I came across in my research was “It’s not their fault, but they’ll face the consequences.” (EcoCRED, https://www.instagram.com/ecocred/?hl=en) The accompanying image was a turtle trapped in a plastic bag. I want people to change their habits about plastic or at least start to think about their plastic habits so the ocean, the world, and the animals won’t become trash. I’ve learned that most people need to be scared or shocked in order to change or think about changing their habits with plastic. I then tasked myself with figuring out what to show people through photographs in order to make them change.
After doing this research I started to create mockups up of people being hurt by plastic, people becoming plastic, animals becoming the plastic, the environment becoming the plastic. I used photoshop and images from the internet to create these mockups. I then showed them to people to get feedback on which ones stood out or had the most impact.
Lastly I used models to create iterations of these photographs. I used models, placing them in nature, to replicate how an animal is hurt onto a human and the earth being filled with plastic. I also wanted to show plastic objects becoming a part of our world because eventually it will just become normal for these plastic objects to be toys or common everyday objects that are not used for their intended purpose. I want people to feel the effects of using plastic. The reason why I choose this topic and want people to feel this way is to hopefully change their habits with plastic, to prevent the planet from becoming the trash can, and to save the sea life.
© Stevenson University 2020
