Edward Burtynsky is a photographer who has shot the traces that industrial civilization carves into the earth’s surface — quarries, mines, oil, water, recycling, factories, and agriculture — in large-format, high-resolution photographs. This page sets out the structure of an environmental image in which beauty and destruction arise at the same time.
Burtynsky does not present environmental destruction as a simple photograph of accusation. He built into the photograph the duality that the very landscape the viewer finds beautiful is itself the result of resource extraction and consumption.
This site does not display work images. Please see the official, museum, and publisher resources below.
Contents · Table of Contents
Born in 1955 in Ontario, Canada. The National Gallery of Canada introduces him as an artist who studied photography and media and who also has experience working in factories and mines*2.
Anthropocene is a collaborative project with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, a cross-media body of work that includes a photobook, a touring exhibition, a feature film, and an educational website*1.
Making vast industrial landscapes look sublime
The National Gallery of Canada introduces Burtynsky’s photographs as industrial landscapes made in large format*2.
Not separating beauty from anxiety
Quarries, tailings, oil fields, irrigated land, and ship-breaking yards are understood, immediately after appearing as a pleasure of color and pattern, as the result of resource extraction and consumption*1.
Turning the Anthropocene into a project rather than a single photograph
Anthropocene develops the traces that human activity leaves on the Earth system across multiple media — photography, film, publishing, and education*1.
Burtynsky is positioned as an artist who has spread an Anthropocene visual culture across photography, museums, film, and publishing*1.
The critical crux lies in the tension over whether photographing industrial destruction beautifully renders the crisis consumable, or whether beauty draws the viewer into the problem*2.