Plastic Particles In
My Testicles
Des particules de plastique dans mes testicules Plastic deeltjes in mijn testikels
Artist’s book/photobook/zine, 2025
Plastic particles in my testicles is a personal response to microplastics pollution in human bodies illustrated by plastic analogue positive film photography.
In a poem on the cover, I write how plastic particles are now everywhere in my body…‘in my testicles, in my lungs, in my liver, my kidneys, my stomach, my brain’.
Inside the book I ask, if photographs are made with plastics and plastics break down into microplastics…which find their way into human bodies, how much photography is inside of me?
Working with discontinued Fuji FP-100C Instant Colour Film I photographed skies and cloud formations, punctured and peeled positive prints and reclaimed negatives. Two photographs inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s drawing ‘Sorrow’, were shot on expired Polaroid 600 Instant Colour Film. These photographs and four wet plate collodion tintype self-portraits, ‘Becoming Plastic’, communicate my horror at my body becoming increasingly polluted with plastics, also linking the 1862 invention of plastic by Alexander Parkes to the 1851 invention of the wet plate collodion process by Scott Archer, both highly polluting and toxic. Black and white photogram prints made in the darkroom, ‘Base Laminated with Plastic on Both Sides’, emphasise the plastic content of contemporary Resin Coated photographic papers.
As pollution knows no borders the title appears in three languages: English, French and Dutch.
The book is printed on a glossy paper stock, the cover gloss-laminated with a plastic coating.
Size 21cm x 29.7cm, 36pp, stapled. Pages 170gsm, cover 300gsm. Published by Negative Press London, 7 May 2025. Printed in England
Buy https://negativepresslondon.bigcartel.com/product/plastic-particles-in-my-testicles
Selected news and science articles about micro plastics pollution, 2022-25
• Microplastics found in human blood for first time
The Guardian, March 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time
• Microplastics from textiles: towards a circular economy for textiles in Europe
European Environment Agency, February 2022
https://www.eea.europa.eu/
• Microplastics are in our bodies. Here’s why we don’t know the health risks
Science News, March 2023
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/microplastics-human-bodies-health-risks
• Microplastics are everywhere — we need to understand how they affect human health
Nature Medicine, April 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02968-x
• Microplastics are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: ‘There’s nowhere left untouched’
The Guardian, August 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/21/microplastics-brain-pollution-health
• Microplastic presence in dog and human testis and its potential association with sperm count and weights of testis and epididymis
Toxicological Sciences, August 2024
https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/200/2/235/7673133?login=false
• Microplastic within humans now a health crisis: Interview with ‘Plastic People’ filmmakers
Mongabay, March 2025
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/
• Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, study finds, threatening millions with starvation
The Guardian, March 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/10/microplastics-hinder-plant-photosynthesis-study-finds-threatening-millions-with-starvation
• New study finds 1,450% increase in microplastic levels within soil, March 2025
Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, March 2025
https://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2025/7961-new-study-finds-1-450-increase-in-microplastic-levels-within-soil-after-four-years-of-sewage-sludge-application
• 4 things you didn’t know about microplastics pollution
World Economic forum, April 2025
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/04/impact-microplastics-environment-health/
• Everything you should know about microplastic
United Nations Environment Program, June 2025
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/everything-you-should-know-about-microplastics
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