THIS PLASTIC WORLD

Born from the song “Plastic World” by Xenia Zemskaja-Chertkova, this photo series merges sound and image to explore fragility, oil’s residue, and our plastic reality...outside, inside, and in our dreams.

This project was born out of a song. A voice. A cry wrapped in melody.

"My dreams are made of plastic" - these lyrics by Xenia Zemskaja-Chertkova (Tallinn, Estonia) - composer and the heroine of this photo series - became the starting point of a visual journey. Her music, filled with fragility, loneliness, and haunting truths, awakened a quiet storm inside me. It grew into shapes, images, textures - into a story told through photography. What began with a single metaphor - plastic as the residue of oil - unfolded into a broader exploration.

During the editing process, new themes emerged:

▫️ Petrochemical pollution of the seas

▫️ Strangled birds and ghostlike coral reefs

▫️ Luxury dripping in oil's shimmer

▫️ The blindness we willingly wear

This plastic world is not just outside - it seeps into our dreams, our friendships, our aspirations. We live among plastic angels, hoping to remain untouched, yet shaped by the very substance we pretend not to see.

By 2050, plastic production is expected to double. We know this. And yet, we continue to move forward within an absurd reality that has already become part of us, like a shadow.

This series became a dialogue - between photography and sound, between personal anxiety and collective memory. It is not a political statement, but a sensory one. A poetic one. Every detail in these portraits carries meaning: the materials, the reflections, the colors, the distortions. The oil slick becomes skin. The branding becomes armor. The bird entangled in synthetic fibers becomes a silent mirror. And still, in this plastic world - she wants to be an angel...