In 2012, Mandy Barker (b. 1964) mistook a piece of material in a rock pool for seaweed. It was a lightbulb moment and, in the years since, the artist has recovered over 200 examples of discarded fabric from around the coastline of Great Britain. The journey took Barker from John O’Groats in Scotland, to Land’s End in the south of England. Now, these clothing fragments – from jackets, trainers, football shirts, fancy-dress outfits, underwear and more – are presented as cyanotypes in a carefully-bound volume.
The images might seem familiar. That’s because Barker is paying homage to one of the most important figures in photographic history: Anna Atkins (1799-1871). She was a Victorian botanist who used the cyanotype process to immortalise different species of British algae as Prussian blueprints. Atkins’ compendium, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), is widely considered to be the first ever illustrated with photographs. Barker has meticulously replicated the original publication, substituting botanical specimens for found garments or fibres. Shockingly, many of the pictures are indistinguishable from Atkins’ early organic forms.
This a labour of love from a creative who is passionate about sparking conversations around fast fashion, synthetic clothes and the harmful effect of microfibres in our oceans. The items included in this book are representative of the millions of tonnes of clothes manufactured and thrown away each year. They also remind us that the fashion industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and container ships combined.
Barker is known for making art that delivers a short, sharp shock, and is acclaimed for presenting the waste crisis – specifically plastic pollution – in a way that is at once beautiful and disturbing. This collection moves away from her signature crisp aesthetic, where pieces of rubbish circulate within stark black voids. Yet Cyanotype Imperfections is just as powerful and delivers the very same feeling: it is lovely, but it really shouldn’t be.
Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections will be published by GOST Books in April 2025: gostbooks.com
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image credits:
Tank top (Cystoseira summus) © Mandy Barker.
Jacket lining (Rhodomenia ignotus) © Mandy Barker.
Jersey boxers (Gigartina sunday) © Mandy Barker.
Patterned blouse (Laminaria materia) © Mandy Barker.
