Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky LL. D (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence. It is most often connected to the philosophical concept of the sublime, a trait established by the grand scale of the work he creates, though they are equally disturbing in the way they reveal the context of rapid industrialization.

Burtynsky is a 2005 winner of the TED Prize. In 2016 he received the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts for his collection of works.

Burtynsky is an advocate for environmental conservationism and his work is deeply entwined in his advocacy. In TED's description of his work, it notes his "large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet." He sits on the board of Contact, Toronto's international festival of photography.

Early life Burtynsky was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, a blue-collar town where General Motors was the largest employer. His father, Peter Burtynsky, was a Ukrainian immigrant who found work on the production line at the General Motors plant. When Burtynsky was 11 years old, his father purchased a darkroom and cameras from a widow whose late husband had practiced amateur photography. Burtynsky was given two rolls of Tri-X film and told to make do with that or support the habit through his own means. Along with learning black and white photography, he learned black and white segregation. This would prove to be useful in the development of his own business to support his new-found habit as he began photographing events and providing portraits at his local Ukrainian community center, charging 50 cents per photograph. With the money he made, he travelled throughout the countryside of St. Catharines photographing the "pristine landscapes" of his childhood. This is where he would later attribute his interest in pursuing landscape photography.

Education and early career From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, Burtynsky formally studied graphic arts and photography. He obtained a diploma in graphic design from Niagara College in Welland, Ontario, beginning his studies in 1974. After receiving his collegial diploma, he had not initially considered pursuing higher education, but quickly changed his mind when touring the Ryerson campus on a request from a former photography teacher of his. Burtynsky briefly worked in photography departments for IBM and the Ontario Hospital Association peri-graduation and in architecture post-graduation.

Photography Most of Burtynsky's exhibited photography (pre-2007) was taken with a large format, field camera, on large 4×5-inch sheet film and developed into high-resolution, large-dimension prints of various sizes and editions ranging from 18 × 22 inches to 60 × 80 inches. He currently uses a high-resolution digital medium format camera.

Burtynsky's photographic style is characterized by the sublime nature of the scale of his photographs. His large-format view camera depicts humanity's scarring on the landscapes he makes his subject, with "astonishing color and relentless detail", always focusing on the consequences of global consumerism.

Burtynsky photographs sweeping views of landscapes altered by industry: mine tailings, quarries, scrap piles. He has made several excursions to China to photograph that country's industrial emergence, and construction of one of the world's largest engineering projects, the Three Gorges Dam. 2014–2018 Anthropocene 2014 Chai Eastern Europe

Toronto Image Works In 1985, Burtynsky established Toronto Image Works, a commercial photography lab, which has evolved into a facility that also offers darkroom rentals, equipment use and digital new-media courses. In 1986 the facility opened a gallery space which displays the work of local and international artists. The film is part of his five-year project, Water, focusing on the way water is used and managed.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch and The Anthropocene Project

The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work from collaborators Nicholas de Pencier, Burtynsky and Baichwal. Combining art, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research, the project investigates human influence on the state, dynamic and future of the Earth. Anthropocene means a new era of geological time where human activity is the driving force behind environmental and geological change.

In September 2018, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In 2019, it won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2018. The filmmakers gave the $100,000 prize money to the runners-up and to TIFF's Share Her Journey initiative, which supports women in film.

Two complementary exhibitions also debuted in September 2018 at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada.

In the Wake of Progress Burtynsky's In the Wake of Progress: Images of the Industrial Landscape has been a webcast in 2003, and a touring immersive multimedia experience, blending music, photography and film, in 2021–2022.