Naomi White is an abolitionist feminist, artist, and educator, working on ideas at the intersection of political ecology and photography. Focusing on the transformative power of photography to affect desire and change, much of her work questions how we can shift our focus away from the current racist, capitalist model of domination to one of equity and collective voice, for the sake of all people, animals and the planet. 

White is the winner of PDN’s Objects of Desire award, has attended several artist residencies,  and exhibited throughout North America and Europe, including Scope, Art Basel Miami, and Photo LA. 

Her work has been published in PDN, The Brooklyn Rail, FAYN, and Uncertain States. White holds an MFA in Photography and Related Media from SVA in New York, a Post Baccalaureate in Photography from the San Francisco Art institute, and a BA in English Literature from San Francisco State. She is currently the Chair of photography at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, California.

"Plastic packaging calls to us like a Siren, luring us to our death. Only 8% of plastic is recycled, and none of the single use plastic such as plastic bags, is recyclable. Scouring the street and my daily life for plastic, I photograph, scan and replicate, recycling the un-recyclable.

Each layer is assigned a different color cast to create a conversation between the perspectives, and to point to the struggle between convenience and extinction, blurring the line between representation and abstraction.

This work was born out of frustration with the recent climate change findings, and the knowledge that in 1977 we knew everything we know now, but we were unable to take action and stop global warming. Instead we waged war, and further polluted our oceans and waterways with oil and fracking. Deconstructing the image using iterative slashes through the layers, mimicking the geometric torn edges of the plastic, the photograph attacks itself, as a metaphor for our own repulsion and seduction by plastic, and our role in the climate crisis."

- Naomi White