ICP Doc ’89 alum Michael Kolster’s recently published book, Mongrels of Our Making, was selected as one of five finalists for Foreword Reviews' INDIES Best Photography Book of the Year.
Michael became interested in the issue of plastic debris on Kamilo Beach through a paper from the Geological Society of America whose authors claimed that the plastic debris, when melted or otherwise combined with rocks on the beach, would probably enter the fossil record to become a horizon marker for the Anthropocene. Dubbed “plastiglomerates” by geologists, these hybrid “stones” are the product of humans burning plastic, whether intentionally or accidentally, that then melts and become fused with the naturally occurring rocks that were created by volcanoes.
Mongrels combines image and text to poignantly document how these fusions of human and geological activity form a fossil-like record of present-day human activity that is likely to persist for thousands of millennia due to their prevalence, location, and composition.
The winner will be announced in June 2026.
