Edward Burtynsky
Man and Earth. Lights and Shadows
Shipbreaking #13, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Admira, Milano
Since the beginning of his thirty-years career, the Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky has always centered his objective in the effects of human intervention on nature and, in particular, on the insolent industrialization of landscapes.
His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places. These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence: our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption on one side, and our concern for the health of our planet, on the other. His work shows us, in a surprising and poetic way, the relationship between the humans and the environment, two elements which will always be intertwined, since neither would exist without the other.
Bao Steel #8, Shanghai, 2005
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Admira, Milano
Nickel Tailings No. 31, Sudbury, Ontario 1996
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Admira, Milan
Alberta Oil Sands #9, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Admira, Milano
Wan Zhou #4, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2002
© Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Admira, Milano