Second Floor Gallery
Art Gallery of Windsor
Windsor, ON

The large-format photographs by renowned artist Edward Burtynsky shown in Anthropocene Emerging were taken from a formative period in Burtynsky’s career – between 1991 and 2001. During this decade, Burtynsky travelled internationally to capture sublime industrial scenes – pictures he has referred to as “manufactured landscapes”. The five bodies of work in this exhibition, featuring ships being recycled; the interiors and exteriors of oil refineries; and behind-the-scenes looks at quarry, mining, and recycling operations; depict difficult truths about how humanity is shaping our planet. The beautiful images show a side of human consumption that that many of us rarely think about. They may inspire viewers to consider the current state of our environment by featuring sites we would otherwise never see.