Amphitrite was the Greek goddess-queen of the sea and wife of Poseidon. The female personification of the ocean. Mother and protector of marine life. How ironic is it that an ancient sea goddess is holding a plastic water bottle….

This series, in collaboration with Eddie Gomez at Deeper Diver Photography, was created to bring awareness about the war our oceans are fighting. Ever since I experienced the underwater world, I immediately fell in love with it and became extremely passionate about the conservation of our oceans. Any chance that I have to raise awareness about our threatened oceans and natural world, I’m all in. Normally I do this with words and photographs, but this project challenged me to speak about the destruction of our ocean without even speaking.

Instead, I embodied it.

Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that are currently circulating. Our oceans are our planet’s life source, and we are suffocating it.

We think that when we throw things away out of our sight, it ceases to exist. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It all has to go somewhere. When we discard things from our homes, they always end up in someone else’s, somewhere else. Whether it’s our neighbors or a beach on the other side of the world. In the deepest known point of the oceans, the tops of the mountains, or the stomachs of fellow earthlings. Tiny particles of plastic have now made their way into our water, our food, and our bodies.

We have a habit of dismissing our inextricable connection to the environment. What we put into our world will always come back to us. We are not the almighty gods of this world. We are not the rulers of this planet. We are guests here. Nature will easily survive without us, but we will not survive without her.

Reduce your consumption and reuse as much as possible. Learn about the harm we are inflicting on our planet and act accordingly. Spread information and teach others. We have so many choices every single day to take care of our beautiful planet, like she has always done for us.

This was the collaboration of a huge team effort. A 3 hour body paint & makeup session was done for this project by the incredible Jeshka Yurash and Christina Prendergast. A big thank you to Ken McMurray for keeping me safe in the water while this shoot was performed on breath-hold, to Bamboo Reef Dive Center for hosting us, and of course to Eddie for proposing this project and having me be apart of it, I will forever be deeply humbled and grateful.