Photographer captures balloons 'after the party' to show impact to Ontario waterways - Action News
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LondonQ&A

Photographer captures balloons 'after the party' to show impact to Ontario waterways

Why do we love balloons, despite the harm they cause? A London, Ont., is exploring this question through his photography.

Many of the pictures of discarded balloons were shot on Lake Erie and Lake Huron

An arch of gold and white balloons, partway on a wild bluff and partway on the sandy beach.
Justin Langille said he was intrigued by the toxic problems presented by such a universal symbol of joy. This photo, titled Active Cluster, was taken at Pinery Provincial Park in 2021. (Justin Langille)

All of Yesterday's Partiesis a project by London, Ont., photographer Justin Langille to highlight the gap between people's love for balloons and the risks they pose to the environment.

Langille photographed lost and discarded balloons in southwestern Ontario using a Polaroid camera. His work has earned him a Canada Council for the Arts grant to expand the project.

Langille spoke with Afternoon Drive host Allison Devereaux.Here's part of their conversation

How did you become so interested in balloons?

I was an outreach worker with London Cares (an organization the providesstreet outreach).I started to spend a lot of time around the Thames Riverwith people who lived there and had nowhere else to go. I just started to understand, through that experience and other things, the importance of water to people's lives.

Then there were other visits to beaches, like the PineryProvincial Park with my family,where my kids love to play on beaches.I started to notice the plastic pollution and that balloons were everywhere.

I would find them in all shapes and sizes: deflated, freshfrom a party somewhere blown across the lake. I started to understand how ubiquitous they are and how much of a problem plastic pollution really is.

A side-of-the-road sign that reads
Langille spotted this sign at an auto mechanic shop in Clinton, Ont. Langille says he uses Polaroid photography for its tactile, familial nature. (Justin Langille)

Tell us where that led you?

I really started to follow the trail of balloons and started to to look for them everywhere I went. Assomeone whofeels responsible for water stewardship, I started to pick them up. I started to think about balloons more.Balloons are such a universal symbol of joy for kids and for everybody, almost,across the world.

But they're also extremelytoxic and they can strangle wildlife. They can choke wildlife.

You talk about the idea of balloons being tied to celebration. People love balloons and yet at the same time they're so harmful. What is your reflection on that?

It's humbling because they're embedded in so many parts of our lives, as well as the environment now.

I think they really show us how deeply we have to change as a society and how profoundly we have to change these parts of our lives.I think it really forces us to consider, 'Do Ineed balloons at my children's party? Do I need balloons at this celebration? What could I do instead?'

A close-up shot of a clear balloon in the sand, half-buried and starting to break down.
A mylar balloon biodegrading in the sand in Kincardine, Ont. This photo is titled "Degredation." (Justin Langille)

When you are photographing balloons in the wild, in cities, what is the mood you're trying to get across?

I think in other venues, like at my children's school, there was someone who had a balloon to celebrate their child's first day of kindergarten. It wasspecial, printed with their name and everything.

So,I'm trying to document how people are still actively using balloons. Not to draw attention to things that people are doing wrong, but just to show, how significant they are if we multiply the numbers. Then, how big of a problem they can bethe next day, after the party.

Is it just a lack of understanding of how harmful they are? Or do people just love balloons so much that it's hard to let go of?

I think it's a lack of public education.I think that more needs to be done, maybe a nuanced strategy by environmental groups. I thinkmore intention by local governments to tryto impress upon people'sconsciousness about how we're using products,how we'repursuing our lives with single use plastics.

What do you say to people who say, "Well, it's just a balloon. What's the harm?"

A father and two kids, a young boy and a young girl, in an apple orchard. The son is clutching a bag of apples.
Langille with his children, Liam and June. (Submitted by Justin Langille. )

I think thatjust comesback to the responsibility for the places where we exist; a recognition that we need these lands and waters to survive. Andwhile it is just the one balloon, cumulatively, if you think about everything that everybody else does, your balloon is amongthe 700,000 or more that land on Great Lakes shores if it's released accidentally, or on purpose.

Now that you have this grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, where are you going with this?

I'm going to start to explore the larger life cycle of the balloon. Primarily,where they're created and how they're being circulated in the economy.

If this changes how we use balloons, if their use changes as plastic laws, perhaps, become more restrictive - hopefully - in the next few years,we might be using balloons differently. I'm also seeing thisas maybe an opportunity to still capture their social significance now, before we do start to change this measurably.

A man's extended hand, holding up a string with balloon remnants attached. The lake shoreline is in the distance.
An old balloon pulled from the sand by Lake Huron in Kincardine, Ont. This is titled, "Everywhere you are there is a balloon." (Justin Langille)

Interesting. So you might be documenting the end of balloons.

Maybe.I have more research to do but I have identified some places where they're produced. That's abig goal for the project, to make some of those inroads on where they're coming from.