The Plastic Project

My images are created whilst I'm out and about, early on I adopted the mindset of trying to see the world as if I'd never seen it before, a way of never being complacent about the view I'm seeing.  It has also lead to seeing that there is ALWAYS more going on than what you see in the frame of an image.  Think of 'The Plastic Project' as what is always 'just out of the frame'.  Through my photography and capturing the beauty I see around me in the places I am, I've become captivated by how we treat our planet. And I'm no different, the convenience of plastic and fossil fuels make change we really need so incredibly difficult.  We have habits that are so deeply entrenched in how modern society operates.  When I'm out and about I can't help capturing images of how we, and myself included are trashing the planet.  We have to change, no matter how hard it is.

Image 1: Captured inside Burleigh Heads National Park, a bush turkey feasting on a styrofoam container.  It is inevitable that there is plastic throughout our food chain.  This is just not right.  I just don't understand why this had to be left where it was.

Image 2: That day when you turn up to the beach and someone found it necessary to bring their old lounge to the headland and leave it there? No worries, someone else will clean it up?

Image 3: Our energy starts somewhere.  An aerial view taken on one of my many fossil fuel burning flights from the Gold Coast to Sydney.  The irony of this is not lost of me, taking a photo of the scaring we leave on the planet whilst enjoying the luxury that scaring affords.  Take from the window seat high above the Hunter Valley coal mines in NSW.

Image 4: Everything has to end up somewhere? Those 'rent a bike', great idea... they end up everywhere though and have to come to a rest somewhere... like a lane where no-one goes, unless you're trying to take photos of planes landing at Sydney airport, and guess what, there they are.  Out of sight, out of mind, that's how it works right?

Image 5: Broken free in a storm? For sale? Insurance? This yacht sat being smashed into ever smaller pieces at the foot of Burleigh Head for quite some time. Just left me wondering how? How did it get here and how do you get rid of it?

Image 6: The sign reads - 'Danger, Swimming and Wading Strictly Prohibited'. I've travelled to Adelaide a number of times and the lights of the Torrens Island Power Station have always stand out.  An early morning sunrise venture captured the power station as the new day starts.  The signs not visible are the heated water outlet signs.

Image 7: A ride on the Manly Ferry.  A trip across Sydney harder in December 2019 at the peak of the 2019 bushfires.  Later that day ferry operations had ceased due to the intensity of the smoke hanging over the city.

Unfortunately since COVID my plastic project has slowed.  The fear of contracting COVID from picking up discarded plastic was real, perhaps now is time to reinvigorate it? I have noticed a change however, there is definitely less single use plastic on the ground, trouble is there is no less rubbish on the ground, we still feel compelled to leave our rubbish where we want.  This is such an important journey to change how we all look after our home because it is amazingly beautiful as you will see in the images to come AND it is our home.  We must ALL do better.
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