Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. He was born on the 22nd of February, 1955 (and is now aged 67 years), in St. Catharines, Canada. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence.

He is seen as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet.

“I can go into the wilderness and not see anyone for days and experience a kind of space that hasn’t changed for tens of thousands of years. Having that experience was necessary to my perception of how photography can look at the changes humanity has brought about in the landscape. My work does become a kind of lament”

– Edward Burtynsky

The Anthropocene Project

“We have reached an unprecedented moment in planetary history. Humans now affect the Earth and its processes more than all other natural forces combined. The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth”–https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/the-anthropocene-project

Along with Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky set out on an adventure around the world (visiting every continent but Antarctica) to photograph the most compelling and ‘impressive’ sites of human impact on the environment. They also used this journey as a time to review on what these changes caused by us really signify.

Image Analysis

This one of the photographs that Burtynsky took while on his journey around the world for the Anthropocene Project, capturing a palm oil plantation site in Malaysia. The photo shows two sections of land, a dirt road separating them in the middle, creating a leading line. The left half presents a desolate field, the nature clearly being destroyed by the machines driving around the curved roads, preparing the soil for planting or maybe the photo being taken just after harvest, uncovering the destruction of the land beneath.. The right side shows a field that has a lot more green covering the dirt, perhaps not yet harvested plants. The main leading line running through the image leads us to the top of the photograph, guiding our eyes to the untouched forest at the base of the fields and creating a sense of depth in the photograph. The rural forest in the back creates a straight horizon line across the top half of the image, creating contrast within the picture and portraying the seer destruction humans have caused for their own wants. Furthermore, another area of contrast is the comparison between the bleak, washed out colours of the destroyed land and the lush, dark greenery of the undamaged forest. The composition of this piece is also a very interesting aspect, causing it to appear as though there three very different sections, almost the three stages of deforestation in one photo. Moreover, the symmetry of the picture is very effective, the road splitting the photo down the middle. The area of focus is the middle as that is where all the roads meet.