Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky was born in 1955 in Ontario after his parents migrated in 1951 to Canada. He is a famous, Canadian artist who is known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. Burtynsky is known as one of Canada’s most respected photographers. He conveys the unsettling reality of parts of the world that has surreal qualities of human-altered landscapes, and locations that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence. His photographs are included in the collections of over sixty major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art- New York, and the Tate Modern- London.

Influence on photography

When Burtynsky was 11, his father purchased a darkroom, including cameras and instruction manuals, from a widow whose late husband practiced amateur photography. This gave him a starting point of starting photography as a hobby. In the early 1970s, Burtynsky found work in printing and he started night classes in photography. From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, Burtynsky formally studied graphic arts and photography. He obtained a diploma in graphic arts in Ontario, 1976, and a BAA in Photographic Arts in Toronto, Ontario, in 1982. Burtynsky’s early influences include Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins, whose prints he saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the early 1980s.

Examples of his work:

Burtynsky’s photos are unique, and are purposely a vivid reminders of humanity’s impact on the planet in haunting aerial photographs. His Anthropocene photos can be seen as beautiful, but also scary and daunting. They are different to other photographer’s images as he captures the truth around the world from an above angle- an aerial view. His large-format view depicts humanity’s scarring on the landscapes. He creates the subject, with “astonishing colour and relentless detail”, always focusing on the consequences of global consumerism.