For thousands of years, toys were crafted with natural materials such as wood, seeds, bones or stones. The incorporation of plastic, a synthetic material that has the capacity to be molded into infinite shapes, transformed their production in such a way that it is currently used in more than 90% of toys produced at an industrial level. If we consider the durability of plastic, all these toys, after a short period of useful life, continue to exist and end up like most of our waste in landfills, incinerated or abandoned in the environment, some find their way to the ocean where they navigate through the marine currents to be washed up on the world’s shores.
Between 2013 to 2019, Alfredo carried out several projects recovering and recycling marine litter in numerous Mexican beaches, facing the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Amid tons of rubbish and colorful pieces of plastic, the toys caught his attention, because they made him think that they were archaeological objects from the Plastic Age. Thus, he began to collect and photograph each new discovery. When he shared them with his son Miguel, he conveyed his enormous emotion to Alfredo, and therefore inspired the idea to instill them with a new life through this project.
Winner of the Photo|Frome Sustainability Honourable Mention, Open Book Call, Photo·Frome, UK. 2023.
Selected finalist in the Prix du Livre, Author Category, Rencontres d’Arles France, 2022.
Selected finalist in the International Photobook Award (FELIFA), Argentina, 2021.
Selected finalist in the Kassel Dummy Award, Germany, 2019.
Print Details:
- Size: 120 x 180 cm
- Print: Giclée Print
- Frame: Banak Venetian box, matte laminate, mounted on a 6-pole trovicel and aluminum frame
Book Details:
- Book size: 22.5 x 17 cm
- Interiors: 132 pages
- Binding: Copper Wire
- Paper: 100% Recycled
- Languages: Spanish & English
Generously donated by Alfredo Blasquez
