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October 11, 2009
Edward Burtynsky's photographs of industrial landscapes are well known.These are manufactured landscapes that stand in contrast the majesty of the unspoiled wilderness.
Edward Burtynsky, Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003, Chromogenic color print.
Human activity within industrial capitalism has so altered nature and transformed the atmosphere over the entire planet, there is no longer a nature outside of culture. For the last 25 years, Edward Burtynsky has photographed the results of the ways that human beings have dominated ecological systems.
The results are photographs of devastated places----the industrial sublime.They are shot with a view camera, largely in diffused light, and present in rich detail the scale of the change wrought upon the earth.
Edward Burtynsky, Alberta Oil Sands #6, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007, Chromogenic color print.
The criticism is that though ostensibly the photos promote awareness of the issues at hand, they are equally open to criticism for aestheticizing environmental atrocity.
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