On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses.

The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean.

For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth.

Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here.

— Chris Jordan

Chris Jordan was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet 2011 photography prize. He was awarded a special commission by the jury to undertake a field trip to Kenya, where Pictet & Cie Bank is supporting a sustainability project. It was his first time to visit Africa. Lens Culture is honored to have Chris Jordan on the international jury for the 1st annual LensCulture Earth Awards 2015.