Last year, artist Chris Jordan journeyed to Midway Atoll, one of the most remote wildlife refuges on earth to document plastic pollution and it's affects on wildlife. What he found was disturbing. Thousands of dead baby albatrosses whose deaths were caused by plastic ingestion and dehydration.
Jordan's photos of decaying birds with plastic in their guts were often dismissed by critics as 'photoshopped' or altered in some way because of the sheer, unbelievable amounts of plastics inside their bodies. Jordan was haunted by his journey in 2009 and when I spoke with him, he talked about going through personal depression and trauma for many months after his return.
As he says, "I was like Dante, entering hell, but thought eventually I would come out the other side. The problem is, I never came out." In response, Jordan launched another expedition to Midway, which will manifest in several legs in order to find and create a body of work that would engender some hope in him, as well as the public. Here is one of the first videos out from Midway Journey, which shows exactly what he documented in his photographs and should dispel any controversy over his first body of works veracity.