In the Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who was cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. A beach cleanup on Midway Atoll made us feel just like Sisyphus. There are millions of tons of plastics present in our oceans, [...]
Chris Jordan has just released on YouTube a 6’30″ video slide show of some of his Midway photographs with the music of Christen Lien. An HD version can be viewed here. Images and video: Chris Jordan. Music: Christen Lien The original quicktime file (103 MB) can be downloaded fron this link.
Chris has released and posted on his website a selection of his photographs under the title “Message from the Gyre”. In Chris’ words: 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 [...]
In the midst of the tragedy of plastic pollution on Midway, Jan Vozenilek’s camera tuns, for an instant, to the triumph of life over decay. During our journey, Jan would occasionally steal away from the group, and wander alone in the island with his camera. The rest of us would wonder where he was, and [...]
Midway Atoll is actually composed of two small islands, Sand Island -which is the largest and the only one inhabited- and Eastern Island, slightly over one mile long, and separated from Sand Island by a narrow channel that provides access to the interior of the lagoon. Matt Brown, Manager of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife [...]
Until now, we have not shown the carcasses of the albatross chicks that Chris Jordan has been photographing, stuffed with plastic beyond belief. So much plastic, and in such bizarre combinations of objects and colors, that we recently posted a video in which Chris explains his photography ethic: no plastic is added to any photo, [...]
In the middle of the Pacific lies a sandy island, where seabirds and humans mingle in a process of renewal and soul-searching. A place where the middle of nowhere becomes not only the middle of somewhere, but the heart of everything. Midway Atoll is a place of ancient power. A revered elder in a long [...]
A large percentage of the permanent residents of Midway are Thai workers, hired by a company called Chugach which provides many services to the island, from maintenance, to food and lodging. Kittipong Janthasang is a Bangkok native who has lived on Midway for three years. We can find him pulling invasive weeds from the fields [...]
Chris Jordan summarizes our visit to Eastern island on day 7 of our Journey, and shows 2 minute’s worth of plastic collected at random on the beach by him and Victora Sloan Jordan.
The amount of plastic objects that we are finding inside of the albatross carcasses that cover Midway Island is so shocking that it might be hard to believe. As soon as we landed on the island, we all agreed to adhere to a strict work ethic that is summarized in these three rules: No plastic [...]
