The photo brings marine pollution to light with Şahika Ercümen, freediving world record-holder, taking the central stage in the frame.  Captured in the Bosphorus Strait in June 2020, the photo exposes the marine pollution caused by the unrecyclable waste created during the COVID-19 period including masks and gloves, as the viewer is left alone with the uneasiness of Ercümen's statement "I have been swimming among plastics rather than fish in recent years".

#reducemarinepollution #protectseas #stopoverfishing #protectbeaches #sustainabletourism #stopghostnets

About the Artist:

Şebnem Coşkun was born in Istanbul in 1987. She graduated from the Department of Photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Marmara University, where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree in “Underwater Photography and Environment”. To date, Coşkun photographed different subjects across many countries including Chad, Niger, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Spain, and Greece among many others, and has been honored with numerous national and international awards. She has been developing herself in underwater photography and documentary photography since 2012. She has also completed several underwater social responsibility projects. In recent years, she has been working on underwater medical waste, plastic pollution, recycling, climate change, and nature. Şebnem Coşkun is currently working as a photojournalist at the Istanbul Office of Anadolu Agency.