From recycling yards and quarries, to oceans, tailings (mine dumps) and oil spills, his lens captures those parts of the world that are directly affected by our modern excesses. But we don’t normally get to see the side he shows us, till it is too late; till we are faced with the destruction of, or the extinction of something we consider essential to our everyday existence.
Taken from helicopters and planes, these images are stunning and we can’t help but face the reality that our unending wants today, could leave us sorely wanting in the years to come.
Homesteads #32, View from Highway 8, British Columbia 1985
Homesteads #37, Cottage North of Princeton. Highway 5, British Columbia 1985
Nickel Tailings #30, Sudbury, Ontario 1996
Shipbreaking #11, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000
Shipbreaking #17, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000
Shipbreaking #23, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000
Feng Jie #5, Yangtze River, China, 2002
Dam #6, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, 2005
China Recycling #9, Circuit Boards, Guiyu, Guangdong Province, China, 2004
Mines #22, Kennecott Copper Mine, Bingham Valley, Utah 1983
Silver Lake Operations #1, Lake Lefroy, Western Australia, 2007
Oil Fields #2, Belridge, California, USA, 2003
Oil Tanker and Refineries, Pasadena, Texas, USA, 2004
Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA, 2008
Highway #1, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003
SOCAR Oil Fields #6, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006
Oxford Tire Pile #1, Westley, California, USA, 1999
Burning Tire Pile #1, Near Stockton, California, USA, 1999
Oil Spill #13, Mississippi Delta, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010
Salton Sea #1, Eastern Shore, California, USA, 2009
Dryland Farming #24, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010
Pivot Irrigation #11, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA, 2011
Stepwell #4, Sagar Kund Baori, Bundi, Rajasthan, India, 2010
All of the above, we’ve done ourselves. Whether we should be proud or ashamed, only time will tell.
In an ironic moment while accepting his 2005 TED Prize, Burtynsky actually thanks the ‘Corporations’, that have allowed him to access the various sites he has photographed. Without their permission he wouldn’t have been able to take many of these images. Burtynsky admits that we do need these Corporations in many ways, but the key is to find sustainable ways to negotiate our growing need for technological advancement and resources. As he says – there’s no harm in wanting a nice house and a nice car, but there are consequences to be faced.
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