Plastic Particles In My Testicles, Roelof Bakker

Plastic particles in my testicles is a book addressing microplastics pollution in human bodies illustrated by plastic-rich analogue positive film photography with a poem/spoken word piece featured on the cover.

If photographs are made with plastics and plastics break down into microplastics which enter human bodies, how much photography is inside of us?

Skies and cloud formations were photographed with expired Fuji 100 positive film, prints were punctured and negatives reclaimed.

Self-portraits were made using expired Polaroid 600 film and with the wet plate collodion process. The portraits communicate the personal horror of bodies 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.

As microplastics know no borders, the title appears in three languages: English, French and Dutch – Plastic particles in my testicles / Des particules de plastique dans mes testicules / Plastic deeltjes in mijn testikels.

Publication date 7 May 2025
A4 size, 36pp, stapled.
Pages 170gsm glossy paper, cover 300gsm
Published by Negative Press London
Printed in England