Frame Work: Edward Burtynsky on capturing human-altered landscapes
Edward Burtynsky has been investigating natural landscapes for over 35 years, producing sweeping views of environments transformed by industry. In the collaboration with British Journal of Photography, here, the photographer discusses his approach.
His collaborative, multidisciplinary body of work, The Anthropocene Project, is influenced by the proposed new geologic era – ‘Anthropocene’ – a concept popularised in 2000 by the late chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen, representing a formal acknowledgement of the “human signature” on Earth. Working alongside filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, Burtynsky travelled to 20 countries over a period of five years, photographing altercations such as the lithium mines of Chile’s Atacama desert, the psychedelic potash ores of Russia’s Ural Mountains, and the effects of oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.
Chronicling the scars of extraction, urbanisation and deforestation, Burtynsky’s images are hauntingly beautiful. “They are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear,” he has explained. In the following interview Burtynsky discusses his practice; from his initial interests in nature to his current meditation on built environments.
What are the roots of your interest in nature, and following that, the influence of industry on it?
My early exposure to the lakes and forests of Ontario, where I learned to fish and forage for mushrooms with my father, gave me a love and deep appreciation for the natural world. Being raised in an industrial town (St. Catharines, ON) I was also able to see – and experience, when I began working in some of these places as a young adult – the scale of industry. With the Welland Canal going through the city where I was born, I was able to witness all of the great ships passing through. My work became a contemplation of the loss of nature, due to the expansion of the human footprint.
How do you approach a landscape initially?
The core of my approach is to create a visually compelling image of what is often a mundane or banal subject. The time of year, the composition, the condition of light and materials with which I engage, as well as the final scale of my prints, all work to create a visceral and full-body experience in the presence of the large-scale final prints.
Is there a structure or landscape that was particularly influential for you when you began photographing?
When I was 20, I had the opportunity to work in Northern Ontario and was able to see a large-scale open-pit iron ore mine, where I witnessed a blasting of the ore. It was the first time I had seen and experienced the large vehicles that moved the material, and the scale of that kind of operation. Years later, I decided to explore open-pit mining based on that initial experience.
You meditate on human alterations to the landscapes, the reality of which can be brutal. The images demonstrate the scale of this interruption, but they are also strikingly beautiful. What do you hope viewers will understand from this?
I see these images as revelatory not accusatory. Ultimately, I see them as inflexion points for a dialogue about our relationship to the planet and the fragility of the natural world.
To what extent do you believe that art can change perceptions?
Connecting the viewer to industrial worlds that they would normally never experience in their day-to-day lives through film and photography allows people to begin to comprehend the collective scale of human impact. Whether rightly or wrongly, we still trust the veracity of the image to convey stories of our world.
‘Anthropocene’ is currently on show at Tekniska Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, until 31 August 2021.
All images © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
RELATED ON THE MODERN HOUSE
Andy Billman on the beauty and history behind London’s bricked-up windows
Peter Bogaczewicz on the tension between natural and built environments
Tom Blachford on the utopian and dystopian potential of architecture
Elina Brotherus on situating herself within modernist homes