Edward Burtynsky

I went to a lecture by environmental/industrial photographer Edward Burtynsky. Fascinating stuff. He spent months in China taking large format shots of coal mines, Three Gorges Dam, huge factories, etc. and documented what is happening in China now. His images are huge and disturbing and gives the viewer a sense of urgency about the looming environmental debacle in progress there. He said the Chinese are actually doing more to build sustainable cities, because they realize the catastrophic implications.

This work is not purely documentary, but cameras just do this very well naturally, without having to categorize it as such. Unlike painting which reworks reality over long periods, the camera gets it in a few seconds. The difference with Burtynsky is that the work is engineered as architecture, with with research, planning and construction done from the blueprint of an idea.



http://www.edwardburtynsky.com