© Jerry Takigawa

What Do You See Here?

A beautifully crafted Chinese game board?

A designer version of the betting game where the walnut shell gets hidden?

A surprisingly ordered set of colorful cups floating over a pebbled stream bed?

Which one is the subject of this unique artistic expression? Or is it none of these? And how does an albatross fit into the story?

A Pacific Ocean albatross
© iStockphoto

Once Upon A Time, There Was An Albatross

The story starts with an albatross. Photographer and graphic designer Jerry Takigawa saw an aquarium worker holding up a jar filled with pieces of plastic. Colorful. Varied. Fun. And deadly.

The plastic remnants had been taken from the stomach of a dead albatross on Midway Atoll. The birds mistake the plastic for food, causing thousands of albatrosses to die of starvation each year.

Lighters, bottle caps, fishing lures, toothbrushes and other sorts of degrading plastic are afloat in the ocean. The birds eat the colorful bites and also collect them to feed to their chicks. There’s an alarmingly low rate of survival. The birds starve because they are filled with plastic, not food.

Untitled F-383 from False Food
© Jerry Takigawa

Oh, I See

As soon as Takigawa saw the jar of bright plastic, the “Oh, I see” Moment was clear. He knew what the subject of his next photographic series would be.

Photographer Jerry Takigawa
© Pamela Takigawa

He was compelled to bring attention to this environmental issue in an elegant and powerful way. He felt that transforming this looming disaster into something beautiful would give us a vision to do the same for the albatross . . . and the ocean environment.

“This is a skill we need for survival,” Takigawa says. “Redeeming hope from darkness. The underlying message is our resilience in the face of tragedy.”

False Food Photographs

The body of work is called False Food and uses the plastic retrieved from dead albatrosses. Takigawa receives the plastic from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, close to where he lives and works. The researchers there are studying the plastic to address this problem for the birds in the North Pacific Ocean.

Takigawa artfully arranges the plastic pieces on whatever background feels intuitively and artistically right.

The result is the most powerful kind of photograph—one that is inspiring from an artistic perspective and one that packs a latent wallop once you realize the underlying thread. These elegant images are about survival in the modern world. They are a call to action.

Untitled F-374 from False Food
© Jerry Takigawa

The Illusion of Separateness

The series is not just a message about the danger of the plastics that are released in the ocean. It is also an exploration into the “illusion of separateness,” as Takigawa describes it.

The bright plastic forms seem suspended over the neutral backgrounds—separated by hue, time, and space. But, in fact, they’re not separate at all.

We may think that the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Ocean is quite distant. However, as Takigawa says, “We do not live in isolation from other beings. We are all connected through the environment.”

Untitled F-334 from False Food
© Jerry Takigawa

A Source of Strength

Knowing about this problem of plastic—and knowing that, even thousands of miles away, we humans are responsible—is staggering.

“Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.”—Tibetan saying

This knowledge and the lingering impressions of Takigawa’s powerful artistic expression should inspire us to action and give us strength to tackle the problem.

What can we do to help?

The first steps are simple. Buy less plastic. Recycle. And today—and everyday—celebrate World Oceans Day. Take action and find out how to protect the oceans and ocean creatures.

For now and forever.

Want to use less plastic? Download this collection of simple ideas to get you started:

Jerry Takigawa’s False Food series has been nominated for the 2013 Prix Pictet. You will find more of Takigawa’s work here. 

Visit the World Oceans Day website and Facebook page for more information and inspiration.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.