NEWS HUB

How Edward Burtynsky's industry roots shape his perspective on art

CBC Radio: The Sunday Magazine

[Re-release from original interview in September 2023] After more than 40 years photographing the industrial sublime around the world, Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky's new project brings him home to St. Catharines, Ont. He's taking an abandoned relic – a 68,000-kilogram sheet metal forge from the former General Motors auto plant, where both Burtynsky and his father worked – and turning it into a sculpture memorializing the industry and people that once drove life in his hometown. He joins Piya Chattopadhyay to talk about his upbringing, the resource industries that define his career and his ongoing work to make audiences connect his beautiful images to the rapid destruction of our planet.

Listen to the full interview here.

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Edward Burtynsky In Conversation with Charlotte Metcalf

The Oldie Podcast

Charlotte Metcalf is a journalist, editor, award-winning documentary film-maker and was co-presenter of the Break Out Culture podcast.   She is Subscriptions Editor and a frequent contributor at The Oldie.

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian artist and photographer and award-winning film-maker. A recent major retrospective at London’s Saatchi Gallery showed his large format photographs, many vast, of industrial landscapes all over the world.  While they resemble beautiful abstract paintings, they depict industrialisation’s devastating impact on nature and human existence.

Listen to the episode here.

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Edward Burtynsky and the Anthropocene

A Lens on Sustainability
Prix Pictet

Renowned for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes, acclaimed Prix Pictet shortlisted photographer and jury member Edward Burtynsky has spent a lifetime capturing the scale and magnitude of human impact on its environment. In this special mini-documentary and podcast, we discuss his journey into Anthropocene photography, traversing the globe in search of landscapes marred by human intervention. Watch the short video and listen to the podcast to learn more about his work, which serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to address the climate crisis.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

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In conversation with Edward Burtynsky: the impact of people and industry on nature

De 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.

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Ep. 224 - Edward Burtynsky

Ben 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

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Standing Whale: Edward Burtynsky’s Collaborations with Queen’s

Campus Beat!
CFRC

Welcome back to another great edition of Campus Beat! On January 18th 2022, Queen’s University announced a new creative partnership with world-renowned Canadian photographer, and Queen’s Honorary Doctorate recipient (2007), Edward Burtynsky to help realize his new public art piece titled Standing Whale.

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

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Photography and Sustainability

The Pictet Group
Found In Conversation (Podcast)

Can photography encourage sustainability? In this episode Renaud de Planta, Pictet’s Senior Managing Partner, explores the power of the image with Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, who has dedicated his life to documenting the impact of economies on the environment. This special episode is hosted by Isabelle von Ribbentrop, the Pictet Group’s Global Head of Branding, Advertising and Sponsoring.

Listen to the episode here.

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The beauty and the horror in Edward Burtynsky's photographs

CBC Radio - The Sunday Edition

Edward Burtynsky's art is awesome. In the old-fashioned sense of the word … to wit, capable of inspiring awe in its beholder.

His huge photos of dams, mines, quarries, oil refineries, shipbreaking, irrigation and oil sands operations capture landscapes altered on a mind-boggling scale … dwarfing the humans and machines that create them and work inside them.

Burtynsky, though, is not simply a photographer of scale. His lens is attuned to the compelling symmetries of massive industrial sites, the striking, unexpected slashes of colour in rivers of mining tailings and the precise patterns of new cars fanning across a sprawling parking lot.

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Energy and Landscape: Edward Burtynsky, Ella Hickson

BBC Radio 3 - Free Thinking

Large-scale photographs showing the impact of humans on urban and natural environments are discussed by Canadian artist and 2005 TED prize winner Edward Burtynsky. Ella Hickson's new play Oil, directed by Carrie Cracknell, explores the politics of this natural resource from 1889 to present day. She's in conversation with Joe Douglas, director of a Dundee Rep production of John McGrath's drama The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil which is on tour this autumn. Plus, presenter Philip Dodd is joined by analysts Peter Atherton and Jeremy Leggett to consider how we meet energy demands in the face of climate change and a rapidly rising global population.

Listen here.

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NO. 224: EDWARD BURTYNSKY

By Tyler Green
The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Edward Burtynsky is one of North America’s most important photographers. In bodies of work such as “China,” and “Oil,” Burtynsky has conducted sustained examinations of mankind’s use of the planet’s natural resources and of the ways industry has transformed nature. His work has been the subject of dozens of major museum exhibitions around the world, including at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Burtynsky’s most recent show, “Water,” features nearly five dozen works mostly examining the ways in which human societies have re-made the natural environment in an effort to use water. The show originated at the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans and was curated by Russell Lord. The book that accompanies the exhibition is published by Steidl. “Water” is on view at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Va. through May 15.

Air date: Feburary 18, 2016.

Listen to the Podcast here.

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