Edward Burtynsky: Photographs the landscape of oil

January 11, 2011 by Gail
Filed under VidStyle

In stunning large-format photographs, Edward Burtynsky follows the path of oil through modern society, from wellhead to pipeline to car engine and then beyond to the projected peak-oil end game.

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ABOUT Edward Burtynsky

“To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky’s work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes: from mountains of tyres to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time.

Edward’s large-format colour photographs explore the impact of humanity’s expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we’re reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

With his blessing and encouragement, WorldChanging.com and others use his work to inspire ongoing global conversations about sustainable living. His photographs are included in the collections of many major museums, including Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

A large-format book, 2003’s Manufactured Landscapes, collected his work, and in 2007, a documentary based on his photography, also called Manufactured Landscapes, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before going on to screen at Sundance and elsewhere. It was released on DVD in March 2007.

In 2008, after giving a talk at the Long Now Foundation, Edward proposed “The 10,000 Year Gallery,” which could house art to be curated over thousands of years preserved through carbon transfers in an effort to reflect the attitudes and changes of the world over time.

When he accepted his 2005 TED Prize, he made three wishes. One of his wishes: to build a website that will help kids think about going green. Thanks to WGBH and the TED community, the new site, ‘Meet the Greens’, debuted at TED 2007. His second wish: to begin work on an Imax film and this work is now ongoing.

And his third wish, wider in scope, was simply to encourage “a massive and productive worldwide conversation about sustainable living.” Thanks to his help and the input of the TED community, the site WorldChanging.com got an infusion of energy that has helped it to grow into a leading voice in the sustainability community.”

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