By Lauren Sproule
CBC News
On the second floor of the prestigious Saatchi Gallery in West London, small circular splotches of ruby, slate and marigold fill a large framed print hanging on the wall.
Passersby from a photography group remark that it looks like the work of 19th-century Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. But it's not a Klimt. In fact, it's not even a painting.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreBy Bethany Minelle
Sky News
Landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky's work explores human impact on the surface of the planet, shooting the Coast mountains in the Canadian province of British Columbia, soil erosion in Turkey, and coal mines in Australia for his latest exhibition, New Works.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreDe Donkere Kamer Podcast
Welcome to De Donkere Kamer, the podcast where we delve deeper into the world of art, photography and creativity. In this episode we have a special guest: Edward Burtynsky. We delve into his fascinating journey as a photographer, entrepreneur and environmentalist. From his first steps into the photography world to his groundbreaking projects around the world, Burtynsky shares his insights and experiences. We also discuss his latest exhibition about water that we are organizing in Knokke next summer, which is in line with his mission to increase awareness about climate change. Grab your headphones and join us as we chat with this inspiring renowned photographer.
Listen to the episode here.
Read MoreBy Joanne Shurvell
Forbes
Renowned Canadian photographic artist and filmmaker Edward Burtynsky has taken over two vast floors at London’s Saatchi Gallery to present Extraction/Abstraction, the largest exhibition of his 40 year career. His remarkable photographs and films of global industrial landscapes represent his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of humans have had on the planet.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreBy Irenie Forshaw
Elite Traveler
At first glance, it’s hard to figure out exactly what you’re looking at when confronted with one of Edward Burtynsky’s works. The large-scale pieces appear almost like abstract paintings: strikingly beautiful canvases streaked with colorful paint splatters and geometric patterns. Look closer, though, and you’ll see they are, in fact, breathtakingly detailed photographs of plundered landscapes. From the diamond mines of Botswana to the salt pans of India, every image delves into the (often devastating) impact of human activity on the planet.
I’ve come to the Saatchi Gallery for the Canadian photographer’s largest-ever exhibition – BURTYNSKY: Extraction/ Abstraction. Running through May 6, 2024, the show is set across two floors of the gallery and features 94 of his photographs, alongside a collection of murals and an augmented reality experience.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreBy Rachel Halliburton
Financial Times
The photographer’s spectacular images, on show in London, document the effects of human activity on the natural world.
Edward Burtynsky’s disturbingly beautiful photography brings a giant’s eye view to our ravaged planet, rendering mining sites as glimmering jewel boxes, desertscapes as geometric puzzles and dumping grounds as Jackson Pollock-like eruptions of chaos and colour. This fascinating exhibition covers his journey of more than 40 years — hanging out of Cessna planes, elevated by cranes and latterly deploying drones — to document the way large-scale industry and agriculture have impacted on the natural world.
Read the full review here.
Read MoreBy Ravi Ghosh
British Journal of Photography
Edward Burtynsky is standing in front of the most ambitious and labour-intensive photograph he has ever made. It is a blanket of golf-ball sized orbs and growths in pink, orange, green and brown, unfurling across an entire wall in London’s Saatchi Gallery.
Pengah Wall #1 is an underwater photograph – or rather, a digital image composed of around 200 individual shots – made off the coast of Komodo Island in Indonesia in 2017. Burtynsky stands back slightly and admires the coral, its fleshy, sprouting texture lending a sense of alien vitality. He mentions the work of painter Jackson Pollock; the idea was to emulate the motion and energy of his canvases in the image. “Abstract Expressionism was one of the things I loved in 20th-century art,” the Canadian photographer says. “That there is no singular central point in the images, and their all-overness, texture and modulation – the whole surface has been considered.”
Read the full interview here.
Read MoreBy Damon Embling
EuroNews Culture
Striking photos, murals and video footage from Canadian photographic artist Edward Burtynsky urge a rethink of our legacy on Earth, and the pursuit of a more sustainable future.
In this edition of CULT, Euronews reporter Damon Embling looks around a new exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery, which delves into the impact of humans on our planet.
Check out the full feature here.
By Sakchi Khandelwal
BNN
The 'Burtynsky: Extraction/Abstraction' exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery captures the profound impact of human activities on Earth through over 90 large-format photographs. Edward Burtynsky's art reveals the abstract beauty and unsettling truths of industrialization, urging visitors to reflect on their ecological footprint and consider sustainable futures.
Read the full review here.
Read MoreTimeOut London
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
All the things that make modern life tick – the mines for our batteries, the farms for our food, the abattoirs for our meat – are kept secret, out of view because they lay bare the damage we’re doing to the planet. Burtynsky’s vast, mega-scale photographs here at the Saatchi Gallery (there’s a concurrent, free, smaller show of his work at Flowers Gallery too) drag those private shames out into the open. He photographs salt marshes carving up the Spanish coastline, gold mines spilling cyanide into the Johannesburg’s groundwater, circular crops sucking Saudi Arabia’s aquifers dry, diamond mines leaking toxic waste into the hills of South Africa.
Read the full review here.
Read MoreBy Jasper Spires
FAD Magazine
Acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has used his career as an artist to highlight and critique the impact of industrialisation on the natural world, and his latest showing at The Saatchi Gallery is no different. Extraction / Abstraction is the largest exhibition of Burtynsky’ work to date, capturing the overwhelming scale of his vision, and humanity’s changing environment. Working within the interplay of wild and post-industrial spaces, and how these shape not only the largest natural phenomenon on our planet, but the individual lives of human beings, the show is a stirring portrayal of the Anthropocene at its most striking and devastating.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreBen Smith
A Small Voice: Conversations with Photographers
In episode 224, Edward discusses, among other things:
His transition from film to digital
Staying positive by ‘moving through grief to land on meaning’
Making compelling images and how scale creates ambiguity
Defining the over-riding theme of his work early on
His relative hope and optimism for the future through positive technology
The importance of having a hopeful component to the work
How he offsets his own carbon footprint
Listen to the episode here
Read MoreBy Chris Harvey
The Telegraph
“I use a digital camera in a helicopter or aeroplane,” says Edward Burtynsky. “It’s moving fast and it’s bouncy and shaky, and I’m taking hundreds of pictures, because if something comes your way and you don’t get it, you’ll never get back to it no matter how good the pilot is. You need to be ready to make that picture when it happens. If you miss it, that’s it.”
The 68-year-old Canadian photographer, the great chronicler of how heavy industry is transforming our planet, is at home in The Blue Mountains, Ontario, explaining how he went from setting up painstaking shots on a tripod with a large format camera like early pioneers such as Ansel Adams, to embracing new technology. “All of a sudden, it was eureka,” he says. Yet the precision he learned as a young man still informs every image, and it’s something that a generation that has grown up with camera phones wouldn’t understand. “In the late ’80s, it cost me about $60 to take one picture. I would walk around with an eight-by-ten camera, sometimes for two or three days, and not take a picture, if the light wasn’t right. But I would make notes: ‘OK, come back here at six o’clock’.”
Read the full interview here.
Read MoreBy Noémie de Bellaigue
The Eye of Photography
The Berlin gallery presents a selection from series by the Canadian photographer produced on the African continent. Aerial views of breathtaking pictorial power which bear witness to the effects of industrial expansion on African landscapes while celebrating those still preserved from human exploitation.
How can we measure the impact of human activity on our planet, other than through data? How can we represent the damage caused by industrial activity, other than through images of devastation? How can we talk about Africa today other than through poverty?
For seven years, from 2015 to 2020, Edward Burtynsky explored ten African countries from the air – the aerial point of view being, according to him, the most powerful scale to reveal the immensity of his subject.
Read the full article here.
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