Edward Burtynsky - Canadian photographer born 22 February 1955

Edward Burtynsky is known for his large prints of industrial and agricultural landscapes. Often the photographs are taken from an elevated position, giving a flattened look to a lanscape rarely perceived by the public at large. What can be viewed as socially ugly and environmentally catastrophic is photographed in such a way as to be seen as beautiful in terms of composition, colour and light. Hence, many of his photographs have an abstract and artistic feel to them. So Burtynsky is concerned to create great works of art which can be used to bring attention to environmental and social issues. Simon Schama in his introduction to the retrospective exhibition of Burtynski’s work -Extraction / Abstraction - and shown at the Saatchi gallery in London - refers to “The terrible beauty of the anthropocene” William Ewing’s introduction to Edward Burtynsky’s “Essential Elements” draws our attention to Aldous Huxley who in 1928, many years before our current concern with sustainable economics, wrote the following:

“The colossal material expansion of recent years is destined, in all probability, to be a temporary and transient phenomenon. We are rich because we are living on our capital. The coal, the oil, the phosphates which we are so recklessly using can never be replaced. When the supplies are exhausted, men will have to do without…. it will be felt as a superlative catastrophe.”

Dryland Farming #21, Monegross County, Arago, Spain

This photograph of dryland farming illustrates the abstract expression that can be achieved from an elevated viewpoint, similar perhaps to the artist Jean Dubuffet’s Brutal Beauty

Silver Lake operations

Thjorsa river