Jeremy Carroll

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“What would you do if you found yourself trapped in a dangerous material that you just couldn’t wriggle out of? It’d be a pretty desperate situation, but it’s one faced by our marine cousins on a daily basis: entanglement in plastic – millions of tonnes of which end up in the ocean each year – affects hundreds of species. To try and make this tragic result of our litter more relatable, an artist has come up with a new exhibit that brings the situation a bit closer to home.” Jeremy Carroll’s exhibit, appropriately entitled ‘Entanglement’, depicts humans caught up in waste typically found in seas and along beaches. Photos include a person with fishing nets around his neck and shoulders, and another with their head and arm caught in a plastic basket. The striking photos act as a stark reminder of the issues sea life faces as a result of our inadequate approach to marine plastic prevention.’ While many of us feel saddened by the harm inflicted on marine wildlife, many people still take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to justifying the use of disposable, single-use plastic products.

These photographs were taken in a studio using studio lighting, you can tell due to the bright white background. Photograph 1 is of a male wearing a snorkelling kit tangled in what looks to be the type of rope found on beaches which were previously used to hold buoys down as well as small boats. The bright green rope is tied tightly around his neck and his head is tilted up, as if gasping for air. There is also some form of red and yellow plastic that is tied around his breathing tube which could also be a reason of why it seems that he cannot breath and here is a longer rope tied around his upper body, which is visibly tight due to his skin and fat puffing out. In the photograph his skin looks like its glowing and smooth although he is a male (males stereotypically are portrayed as tough)- this could be to show the delicacy of a fish for example as well as that stereotype not applying to sea creatures. If it were tied around a fish they would most likely be in excruciating pain due to their fins and gills.

Brett Stanley

‘Brett is an underwater portrait photographer who has been doing this for over ten years. He loves being under the water and adding photography to that is just a bonus. His natural calm nature in the water really shows through and helps his clients to feel comfortable, which is the first aim of any underwater shoot. Whilst based in Los Angeles, USA, the Australian born photographer travels frequently and relishes the chance to work with new people and new locations all over the world. Always looking to innovate, Brett has built custom equipment and perfected his techniques to make every photoshoot the best it can be.’

I will be focusing on one specific shoot with documentary filmmaker Christine Ren who has a unique set of experiences and skills: she has degrees in marine affairs/policy and biology, worked as a ballet dancer and is an experienced diver. When she decided to combine these personal attributes to make art advancing ocean conservation efforts, she ended up with some intriguing results.

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This particular photograph by Brett Stanley is of a woman underwater, blindfolded in a ballerina costume. She is holding a red shopping cart full of plastics of which are floating out of the cart and all around her. This represents how even when we as human beings do a normal daily/weekly function such as shopping, the plastics in our cart slowly make their way into the ocean. Another point I thought about as to why the woman is wearing a ballerina costume could only be because she is a ballerina in real life, however, in my mind ballet is a very delicate and beautiful sport, showing that even the finest people in the world are causing destruction to the ocean blindly. The background is a dark sea-blue representing deep ocean and in the background you can faintly see plastic bags, as well as the midground, where the woman is, with a mixture of different plastic items such as bottles, containers and wrappers. It looks as if the woman is leaving this trail of plastic behind her. In the foreground there is one particular thing that stands out which is the white plastic bag with a yellow smiley face that reads ‘Thank you Have a nice day!’. I believe that this was placed there on purpose to be ironic and slightly humorous. The bag originally says that as a thank you note to the person that attended the store, but now was staged to make is seem as the ocean has pushed this bag into place, ironically thanking the human race for polluting it with their trash. The photograph was actually taken in a pool by ocean lover and photographer Brett Stanly, and the woman in this photo is Christine Ren who has degrees in marine affairs/policy and biology, worked as a ballet dancer and is an experienced diver. She contacted Brett in the hopes of making art advancing ocean conservation efforts and together they made this photograph. The one I am writing about now is called ‘Blind Spots’ and the reasoning is to show the majority of the populations apathy towards plastic, and how we are blindly polluting the ocean. As mentioned, the photograph was taken in a pool and therefore was staged- as you can see there was a lot of work put into this image which shows just how much they wanted to get this message out perfectly.

The photographer stated that he used Aquatica Housing and Sea & Sea lights, so he used proper underwater lights designed for this purpose, In the photo, the lighting that stands out is shining down onto the woman in a streaky form, as if the sun was putting her in the spotlight. It is quite delicate lighting, representing the delicacy of nature.

Comparison

Jeremy’s work is all about ‘what if it was you being strangled by plastic waste?’. He is putting humans in the position of the oceans population- graphically showing us what we are doing to the ocean in a way that people could understand. On the other hand, Brett is showing us what we are doing in a passive-aggressive viewpoint- instead of being graphic, he is saying ‘this is what you are doing anytime you go shopping’. However both of these photographs are clearly about ocean pollution- in Jeremy’s photograph the man is wrapped in rope that we probable have all seen laying around on a beach as well as wearing a snorkelling mask, and Brett’s photograph is a woman blindly polluting the ocean with a shopping cart full of plastic waste UNDERWATER.

Jeremy focuses more on the creatures of the ocean whereas Brett focuses on the ocean as a whole- nevertheless they are both about ocean pollution.