Edward Burtynsky
Edward Burtynsky is a world renowned photographer born and raised in a Ukrainian family living in St Catherines, Ont. He began photography at the age of 11 when his father purchased a darkroom and continued to study photography at Ryerson University and Niagara College. Burtynsky’s early work or goal was to capture the beautiful and unspoiled yet diminishing Canadian natural terrain but was soon lured into the intriguing world of the relationship between industry and nature. He says that the sights and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown was the inspiration for the development of his photography into his current style. In his photographs, he tries to portray the delicate and intricate balance of nature and industry. The photos explore humanity’s ever expanding industrial footprint and how we are reshaping the face of the earth. He creates large landscape photographs of the raw elements of the mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling industries and somehow creates eerily beautiful, vivid, detailed visions which often uncover uncomfortable realities about how much damage we are actually inflicting on the earth.
This first picture of his illustrates his style of photography perfectly. This is a landscape photo of the runoff nickel from a nickel mine in our very own Sudbury, Ontario. This photo is so beautiful and yet what it is showing is so destructive to nature and the face of the planet. The colour and detail of this photo is breathtaking and yet many of us don’t understand the true effect of these photos. Burtynsky makes it his goal not to criticize the industry or get involved in the politics that might ensue from his photos, he merely tries to capture the magnitude and the ways that humanity is taking over the planet. This photo is a prime example of this. We see the huge space that this nickel is running through and often people don’t even know that this is happening to our planet. This monumental sight though, was created by mere humans over land that was at some point a beautiful unspoiled landscape. However, this photo can be interpreted in many different ways; some people may see this as beauty or money whereas other people may see it as destruction. The way he captures this scene makes you have a double take, the colours and detail and just size of the photo and all it captures is phenomenal and truly portrays the beauty and the ugly side of industrialism.
This photo is one of my favourites of Burtynsky’s. It shows an oil slick in a riptide in the Gulf of Mexico. His photos are always so beautiful and yet repulsive at the same time because of the subject matter. The difference in the colour between the oil and the different shades of water is just so appealing and eye catching. Once again, Burtynsky captures the fine line between nature and industry by photographing one of the largest industries and its impact on nature, you can see this how the oil is actually in the water but not taking up the entire ocean so there is still a balance between them, as bad the the oil spill is to nature. Burtynsky’s pictures act as a dialogue between attraction and repulsion of the industry itself. Humans are drawn to the industry because of money and a hope for a chance at success and yet people are equally repulsed because of the damage they know it inflicts on the environment. This picture is a very good backup to that, the oil industry is a very wealthy and sells for a lot of money and yet people are aghast and repulsed when an oil spill actually happens. Burtynsky captures all of this in almost all of his photos.
Although the majority of his work is in fact of industry and it’s effect on nature, he also takes pictures of landscapes that have not yet been spoiled by industry such as this one. This is a picture of highway 5 between Merritt and Princeton, British Columbia in 1983. As you can see, the highway is still a dirt road and the landscape is still in tact, not yet defaced by humans trying to milk the land for all it’s worth. What I like about this photo is that it is before Burtynsky got into the industry phase and it shows the Canadian landscape before industry yet still with the same style: large scale, beautiful colour and amazing detail. Contrary to his other photos, this one lacks the repulsion of the industry in his other photos, and focuses more on the beauty of the landscape and of planet earth and how if we leave it alone, we may not get the money, but we sure get the beauty and the peace of mind that we are not killing the nature in that area.
I had a lot of trouble getting a picture that mimicked the style of Edward Burtynsky just because there aren't a lot of places around Oakville that have scenes like the scenes that Burtynsky photographed but I feel that this picture is the one that best represented his style. As you know, the aviation industry is one of the biggest industries in the world and airports take up a lot of valuable land that would probably have been claimed by mother nature as her own. As you may probably see, this photo does not really show the balance with industry and nature other than what is implied that the airport took up the space that used to be nature. It does, however capture one of earth's greatest beauties, the sunset.
Bibliography:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/edward_burtynsky.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burtynsky
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/Sections/Statement_CV/Bio.html
http://www.sundaramtagore.com/artists/edward-burtynsky/biography/
http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/blog/9181/manufactured-landscapes-edward-burtynsky/
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
