“A lot of the work that I do has an environmental bent to it,” says Justin Fantl. “And it’s usually not a one-off sort of thing. It’s thought-out, conceptualized, and premeditated. First, I think about something for a while, write about it, jot ideas down, kind of explore it intellectually, then I go out and take pictures.”

Case in point: “Blow Up III Sea Creatures,” which features an orgy of whales, octopodes, porpoises, sea horses, etc. Though upon close inspection we realize these are not flesh-and-blood whales, octopodes, porpoises, sea horses, etc., but rather inflatable plastic renderings of them. At first glance they’re cute—but then they’re not cute at all.

“I was volunteering with the Channel Islands University marine debris cleanup crew, and we were pulling all this plastic trash off the beach,” explains Justin. “It got me thinking about the implications of that. These big environmental issues, they can seem so sinister, but then when you start to look at what these things are… There was a pool party with my son, and we had a bunch of blow-up plastic animals, and I was like, ‘These are sort of hilarious. These are plastic, yet they could last outlast all of us if we don’t do anything with them.’ So that’s where this project idea came from. The animals are very cartoon-like, out-of-proportion, illustrative, funny-looking. But then when you think about the material they’re made of, a whole different set of thoughts and issues emerge.”