Edward Burtynsky, Extraction / Abstraction, Steidl, 2024

Edward Burtynsky

Extraction / Abstraction

Steidl, 2024

Edward Burtynsky, Extraction / Abstraction

Edited by Marcus Schubert

Text by Simon Schama, Marc Mayer, Edward Burtynsky

Book design: Barr Gilmore, Jim Panou & Marcus Schubert

English, 240 pages, 30.5 x 23.5 cm, Hardback

€ 48.00 - ISBN 978-3-96999-313-2

Published on the occasion of Edward Burtynsky’s largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date, at the Saatchi Gallery, London, Extraction / Abstraction looks deeply at the key subjects and signature images spanning his 45-year career. Alongside Edward Burtynsky’s compelling photographs, the book includes texts by celebrated art historian Simon Schama, who examines Edward Burtynsky’s work in light of the question “Can art help save the world?”, and by curator Marc Mayer, former director of the National Gallery of Canada, who provides an overview of the photographer’s achievements as technician, journalist and artist.

Extraction / Abstraction presents a dichotomy of Edward Burtynsky’s image-making imperative: the lucid and informed documentation of large-scale extractive processes, and how he transforms the landscapes of industry into complete abstractions. Other essential themes in his oeuvre such as agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and waste also find their rightful place here. With more than 130 color plates, the book furthermore has a special section, the “Process Archive,” featuring previously unpublished, behind-the-scenes photographs of Edward Burtynsky at work on the ground and in the air throughout his career. The archive provides a glimpse into the artist’s progression through the evolution of the medium itself, from mid twentieth-century large-format analogue (film-based) cameras, through to twenty-first-century high-resolution digital technologies, including explorations into photogrammetry and augmented reality.

EDWARD BURTYNSKY - Biography

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. Since the early 1980s Burtynsky’s imagery has explored the collective impact we as a species are exerting on the environment. Renowned for his sustained investigation of the “indelible human signature” caused by industrial incursions into the landscape, previous projects have explored mining, quarrying, manufacturing, agriculture, shipping, the production of oil, and the development of China. In addition, he has made three award-winning films with director Jennifer Baichwal, Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Watermark (2013) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018). Edward Burtynsky’s books with Steidl are China (2005), Quarries (2007), Oil (2009), Water (2013), Salt Pans (2016), Anthropocene (2018), Natural Order (2020) and African Studies (2023).

STEIDL

steidl.de

Edward Burtynsky: African Studies @ Flowers Gallery, London

Edward Burtynsky: African Studies

Flowers Gallery, London

14 October - 19 November 2022

EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Sishen Iron Ore Mine #5, Tailings, Kathu, South Africa, 2018

Pigment Inkjet Print on Kodak Professional Photo Paper

 © Edward Burtynsky 

courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and 

Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto

EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Desert Spirals #4, Verneukpan, Northern Cape, South Africa, 2018

Pigment Inkjet Print on Kodak Professional Photo Paper

 © Edward Burtynsky 

courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and 

Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto

“I’m finding new visual resonances emerging while photographing in Africa. As I evolve my use of the aerial perspective, in these recent pictures I am surveying two very distinct aspects of the landscape: that of the earth as something intact, undisturbed yet implicitly vulnerable... and that of the earth as opened up by the systematic extraction of resources.” - Edward Burtynsky

Flowers Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Edward Burtynsky produced across the African continent between 2015-2019.

Edward Burtynsky’s works chronicle the major themes of terraforming, extraction, agriculture and urbanization, developing a long-standing preoccupation with the unsettling reality of the human imprint on the planet.

In African Studies, Edward Burtynsky reflects on landscapes undergoing rapid industrial and manufacturing expansion. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, his images present environments shaped by processes of resource extraction, from the salt pans of Senegal to the ‘residual landscapes’ of mechanized extraction such as Sishen Iron Ore Mine #5, Tailings, Kathu, South Africa, 2018. Images of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD #8, Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, 2019) reflect an ongoing enquiry into the global theme of water and its related environmental and geo-political impacts.

Alongside industrialised landscapes, Edward Burtynsky presents images of the pristine natural environment as a reminder of its fragility and finitude, such as the rich sculptural topography of Sand Dunes #3, Sossusvlei, Namib Desert, Namibia, 2018; and the unaltered ecosystem of the Rift Valley in northern Kenya in Flamingos #1, Lake Bogoria, 2017.

Photographed predominantly from aerial viewpoints, Edward Burtynsky’s works often have a flattened frontal aspect, transforming the image into sumptuously graduating colour fields or vigorous grid-like compositions, strikingly reminiscent of Modernist abstraction. Presented at a large scale, and with compelling detail, their painterly surfaces and gestural marks reveal the coalescing designs of both nature and human infrastructure. Edward Burtynsky’s perpetual search for abstraction within the landscape navigates a fine balance between form and content. He describes this dualistic approach as “keeping two doors open” for the viewer to enter the work - leading an enquiry into the expansive subject matter, while exploring the image as a mode of intuitive sensory expression.

This exhibition coincides with the expected publication of African Studies, a new book by Edward Burtynsky by Steidl (Not yet published).

Edward Burtynsky

African Studies

Publisher: Steidl, 2022

208 pages, 154 images

Hardback / Clothbound, 36.4 x 28.8 cm

ISBN 978-3-96999-145-9

Book Cover © Edward Burtynsky / Steidl

EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Edward Burtynsky’s works are in the collections of over sixty museums around the world, including Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim, New York; Tate, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the National Gallery of Canada. Exhibitions have included Anthropocene (2018), which premiered simultaneously at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada before travelling to Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia (MAST), Bologna in Spring 2019; Water (2013) at the New Orleans Museum of Art & Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, Louisiana (international touring exhibition); Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (five-year international touring show), China (toured 2005 - 2008); Manufactured Landscapes at the National Gallery of Canada (touring from 2003 - 2005); and Breaking Ground produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (touring from 1988 - 1992).

Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier have created a trilogy of films - Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Watermark (2013), and Anthropocene. Edward Burtynsky received the inaugural TED Prize in 2005; and won the Tiffany Mark award in 2012. In 2006, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada; and in 2016 he received the Governor General’s Award for Visual Arts. He holds six honorary doctorate degrees. His distinctions also include the National Magazine Award; MOCCA award; Outreach Award at Rencontres d’Arles; ICP Infinity Award; the Kraszna Krausz Book Award; and was honoured as Master of Photography at Photo London in 2018; and Outstanding Contribution to Photography at the Sony World Photography Awards in 2022.

His recently released project In the Wake of Progress, a fully choreographed blend of photographs and film from his 40-year career premiered as a public art piece in Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto, ON, Canada in June 2022 as part of the Luminato Festival, and was transformed into a new indoor immersive experience from June 25 – July 17, 2022 at the Canadian Opera Company Theatre, Toronto, ON, Canada. In the Wake of Progress will embark on a global tour beginning Autumn 2022.

FLOWERS GALLERY

21 Cork Street, London W1S 3LZ

www.flowersgallery.com

Edward Burtynsky, Salt Pans - Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India

Edward Burtynsky 
Salt Pans - Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India
Steidl

Edward Burtynsky 

Salt Pans - Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India

Steidl, 2016

60 pages - 36.4 x 28.8 cm / 14.3 x 11.3 in.

Four-color process - Clothbound - € 68.00

ISBN 978-3-95829-240-6

Salt Pans is Edward Burtynsky’s newest book in his acclaimed ongoing series of photographs exploring different industrialized landscapes across the world. Consisting of 31 aerial photos of the salt pans in the Little Rann of Kutch, the project is the result of months of intricate negotiations and preparations. These striking geometric images, taken in an intense ten-day period during which Burtynsky photographed from a helicopter, present the pans, wells and vehicle tracks as abstract, painterly patterns: subtly colored rectangles crossed by grids of gestural lines.

And yet the reality behind the ironic beauty of Edward Burtynsky’s pictures is a harsh one. Each year 100,000 poorly paid Agariya workers toil in the pans, extracting over a million tons of salt from the floodwaters of the nearby Arabian Sea. Furthermore, receding groundwater levels, combined with debt, diminishing market values as well as a lack of governmental support, threaten the future of this 400-year-old tradition and the lives dependent on it.

EDWARD BURTYNSKY: short biography

Edward Burtynsky was born in 1955 and is one of the world’s most respected photographers. His remarkable depictions of global industrial landscapes are held in the collections of over sixty major museums including the National Gallery of Canada; the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York; Tate Modern, London; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Burtynsky’s distinctions include the TED Prize, the Rencontres d’Arles Outreach Award. In 2006 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2016 he received a Governor General of Canada Award in Visual and Media Arts. He holds six honorary doctorate degrees. Edward Burtynsky’s previous publications with Steidl are China (2005), Quarries (2007), Oil (2009) and Water (2013).

SALT PANS by EDWARD BURTYNSKY is published by Steidl :
www.steidl.de

Borromini / Edward Burtynsky, Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal

Vues et points de vue : l'architecture de Borromini dans les photographies d'Edward Burtynsky
Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal
15 mars - 7 mai 2000    

Le Centre Canadien d’Architecture présente l’exposition Vues et points de vues : L’architecture de Borromini dans les photographies d’Edward Burtynsky. Un choix de 27 photographies et gravures nous offre l’occasion de redécouvrir des bâtiments construits à Rome par l’architectecte baroque Francesco Borromini, dont on célébrait le 400e anniversaire de naissance l’an dernier.

Vues et points de vues propose un dialogue entre deux média et entre les deux approches différentes qui en découlent, pour représenter les oeuvres construites de Borromini: la photographie contemporaine et des gravures datant des 17e et 18e siècles. Les photographies de l’exposition font partie des acquisitions du CCA; elles ont été prises à Rome par le photographe torontois Edward Burtynsky en 1999. Elles sont présentées conjointement avec des gravures des mêmes édifices, dont des tirages dérivés de Borromini lui-même publiés après sa mort.

Cette rencontre romaine ne doit rien au hasard. Les bâtiments de Borromini joignent une grande expressivité plastique à une rigoureuse alliance entre géométrie et architecture. Ils constituent un défi particulier pour le photographe et pour le graveur: il faut traduire à la fois le revêtement extérieur de l’édifice et sa structure. De plus, les choix d’angle de vue et de cadrage du bâtiment ainsi que l’aptitude du photographe ou du graveur à maîtriser son art joueront des rôles décisifs dans sa capacité à transmettre une expérience qui s’apparente à celle des édifices concrets.

Dans la lignée de ceux qui ont fait le voyage à Rome pour y photographier ses chefs-d'œuvre, Edward Burtynsky a travaillé avec le spécialiste le plus en vue de l’étude de Borromini, Joseph Connors de l’université Columbia. Les tirages obtenus, quoiqu’ils refusent les effets d’ensemble et se concentrent sur des détails, démontrent l’esprit inventif extraordinaire des motifs architecturaux et ornementaux de Borromini. L’approche de Burtynsky lui permet également de saisir la dynamique spatiale qui caractérise le travail de l’architecte. Chaque détail découpé par le geste du photographe nous rappelle l’espace architectural contigu.

Cette sollicitation constante du spectateur à réfléchir au delà des limites du champ visuel a été délibérément accentuée dans l’exposition par le jeu des formats et de l’accrochage, par la juxtaposition de tirages photographiques et numériques, ainsi que par le contraste entre les tirages en couleur et en noir et blanc. Les oeuvres sont présentées dans la salle octogonale du CCA - elle-même inspirée par la coupole de l’église Saint Yves de Borromini.

C’est à un registre plus technique que nous convient les planches gravées de l’œuvre de Borromini. Elles utilisent les ombres portées et la juxtaposition pour surmonter la difficulté inhérente à l’estampe à traduire les effets de profondeur. Les nombreuses sources d’information graphique dévoilent l’intelligence du trait de l’architecte dans les dessins originaux. C’est pourquoi les recueils d’estampes joueront un rôle important dans la diffusion du baroque romain en général et, plus particulièrement, de l’oeuvre de Borromini.

CCA - CENTRE CANADIEN D'ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue Baile, Montréal, Québec H3H 2S6
www.cca.qc.ca