A Constellation of Soccer Balls

British photographer Mandy Barker knows that the World Cup is the biggest news story going right now — and she’s using it to raise awareness of marine pollution in her latest series,Penalty.

See a slideshow below.

Hoping to highlight the impact of plastic accumulating in our oceans, Barker took to social media asking people to send her photographs of the soccer balls (also plastic) they found washed up on their local beaches. She ended up with images of 769 balls from 144 shores in 41 countries and islands around the world.

Barker’s compositions transform the soccer balls into galaxies floating in space. They are both stunningly beautiful and, given their provenance, distressing. Barker hopes her images will “highlight the penalty we will ultimately pay for this global problem.”