This Vancouver photographer has turned mask trash into photogenic art

A fine art photographer is shedding light on issues of waste in the pandemic and the climate emergency by using disposable mask trash in her art.

"My actual show is more about just bringing the two 'pandemics' together, I want people to be aware of COVID-19 along with the state of the environment and I wanted to express it this way," Michelle Leone Huisman said on CBC's The Early Edition.

According to a 2020 study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, humans around the globe are using approximately 129 billion disposable face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month.

To produce her images, Huisman says she used a 19th century photographic printing technique, called tri-colour gum bichromate over palladium — a process, she says, that makes the image look like a watercolour painting. She adds that the technique is also meant to make the photograph last about 500 years.

"They're basically hand-painted photographs so I do love the technique, it's about a five-day process just to produce one photograph," she said.

She says she wanted the photos to be archival in nature.

"What I wanted to do is express it in a way that was lasting and meaningful because I'm a mother and I have two children, I started to think about what the future holds for our children so the series, I hope it stirs an awareness in the audience of the two 'pandemics' that we're facing, obviously COVID and then the more insidious of the waste of producing what we've produced during this pandemic."

Huisman began the project in November 2020, when she started picking up masks on walks with her dog. 

She says she also received masks from David Papineau, a runner who has been picking up masks around Vancouver.

"But I've also collected thousands," she said.

Her photos are featured in the exhibit, Global Pandemic, on display and open to the public for free at the Dal Schindell Gallery in Vancouver's Regent College until April 10.