Photographer Chris Jordan and his wife, a poet, Victoria Sloan Jordan took a trip to Midway Island with a group of artists to document and see for themselves firsthand how the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean is harming the albatrosses there, who heartbreakingly mistake plastic for food and in turn feed their young chicks with it.
Along with Chris and his wife, the team consisted of media strategist Bill Weaver, cinematographer Jan Vozenilek, and journalist Manuel Maqueda. The collaborative hope is that the situation around Midway will provide “a multi-layered doorway into the heart of the environmental and cultural crisis that humanity is in right now.”
Chris and his wife plan to put together a collaborative book detailing their adventure and experiences through photographs and poetry. There will also be a feature-length documentary produced from the group’s travels. You can view more on their site here.
” I envision our project not as being a bunch of professional media people tramping around the island with cameras; instead I hope it will be an emotional and spiritual journey by a deeply connected group of artists, to honor the the issues that Midway represents. Maybe it is not too ambitious to hope—if we can fully rise to the occasion—that we might be able to co-create a multi-media work of art that tenderly witnesses this middle point that humanity finds itself at right now. And in the eye of the storm —the apex of the Gyre—perhaps our collaborative efforts can create a container for healing that might have some small effect on the collective choice that is to come.” Chris Jordan
An excerpt post describing the pictures shown along with the many others taken (which can be viewed here):
These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
When viewing the pictures in their entirety for myself, I found reoccurring items that had been digested by the poor birds: bottle caps and cigarette lighters. But such an array could be found from disposable razor blade handles, safety caps for bolts, netting, the plastic rings that you rip to open bottles such as milk and juice, and much more. It was amazing to see all the little crap you don’t think about as you throw it away inside the dead carcasses of these birds.
What a shame. And an even bigger shame is that if this were happening in our own backyard and to this degree, you would see a storm of protest. This is the first I’ve heard of this and seen pictures so disturbing. I have heard of the floating garbage patch but not its effect on wildlife.
Out of sight, out of mind.