NEWS HUB

Edward Burtynsky: ‘We can’t all live off the land, so we’re kind of in a pickle’

By Nancy Durrant
The Times

Sometimes there is only one feasible response when someone shows you a cool thing, and that is: “Woah!” I’m standing in the downtown Toronto studio of the photographer Edward Burtynsky, pointing an iPad at a target on the floor. The artist and his partner, Julia Johnston (who also works in the studio), are looking on and laughing, because I’m amazed. There’s nothing on the floor, but through the iPad I can see, walk around and peer into a 3D pile of discarded car tyre rims. It’s from a scrapyard in Accra, Ghana, and is made of tens of thousands of images stitched together by recently developed, powerful software to create this uncanny experience. Burtynsky reaches politely over my shoulder and shows me how to flip between several — what, images? Scenes? I don’t even know the right word — all pin-sharp. I say “woah” again.

This augmented-reality installation will be part of Burtynsky’s exhibition at Photo London, which runs from Thursday to Sunday next week at Somerset House. The artist has been named the annual fair’s master of photography (previous winners of the award include Taryn Simon, Don McCullin and Sebastião Salgado), which recognises a photographer’s stature and impact — or, as Burtynsky puts it when I ask what he thinks it means: “Longevity, persistence, quality. Not giving up.”

Read the full article here.

Photo London's Master of Photography in 2018 - A Talk with Edward Burtynsky

By Angie Kordic
Widewalls

Edward Burtynsky is a Master of Photography – and not just because that is his honorable title at this year’s Photo London.

This Canadian fine art photographer certainly is one of the most prolific visual artists today, with a practice that chronicles the impacts of the human kind on its planet. From sawmills and oil bunkers in Nigeria to the salt pans in India and mines in Australia and Canada, his imagery is a striking reminder of what a man’s greed and carelessness can do to landscapes that mean life.

Listen to the talk and continue reading here.

Edward Burtynsky’s environmental themes emerge with a harmonious new context at the Art Gallery of Hamilton

By Murray Whyte
Toronto Star

Edward Burtynsky’s great big photographs ooze uncomfortable truth, though the artist himself, careful not to preach, once took a more ambivalent stance. But at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, where a few dozen of the 76 pictures he recently donated to the museum are now on view, an unintended synergy freights even his earliest images with the unleavened urgency they demand. Terrible beauty, Burtynsky’s esthetic calling card, remains present, never fear. But these days, terror comes first.

The Burtynsky show, Witness, is surrounded by Water Works, an engaging, alarming exhibition that largely concerns itself with the accreting perils of depleting, poisoning or otherwise contaminating our most precious resource. The AGH, for its part, cries coincidence, but, seriously: To get to his pictures, you have to first walk right through it. Taken together, they send alarm bells ringing: Effect, meet cause.

Continue reading here.

Edward Burtynsky: 2018 winner of Master of Photography – in pictures

By Matt Fidler
The Guardian

The Photo London Master of Photography award is given annually to a leading contemporary photographer. A special exhibition shows new and rarely seen images from Burtynsky’s portfolio including a preview of his new work, Anthropocene, and explores the complexities of modern existence and diverse subjects such as Australian and Canadian mines, oil bunkering and sawmills in Nigeria, the salt pans of India and sprawling cityscapes

Burtynsky will speak at Photo London on 17 May at 5.30pm. Tickets will be available via the Photo London website

View the full image gallery here.

Edward Burtynsky and a bigger Discoveries section at Photo London 2018

By Diane Smyth
British Journal of Photography

Photo London is back at Somerset House from 17-20 May, with an exhibition of Edward Burtynsky's new work and 22 galleries in the Discoveries emerging showcase.

He’s currently working on a five-year project on the Anthropocene – the proposed name for our current geological age, an age on which human activity has had a profound and still ultimately unknown impact. A multidisciplinary initiative with long-term collaborators Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencie, Anthropocene includes images showing urbanisation, urbanisation, industrialisation and mining, from oil bunkering and sawmills in Nigeria to the salt mines of the Ural Mountains.

Read the full article here.

PHOTO LONDON MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY | EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Photo London is delighted to announce Canadian fine art photographer Edward Burtynsky as its Master of Photography for 2018. Burtynsky’s practice eloquently chronicles human impact on the planet. His images are widely regarded as key visual documents of our time.

Burtynsky's Anthropocene coming to the AGO in September 2018

By Kevin Ritchie
NOW Magazine

The photographer's sprawling collaboration with filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier will open simultaneously in Toronto and Ottawa

The latest collaboration between photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier is the Art Gallery of Ontario’s (AGO) major fall 2018 exhibit.

The trio, who previously worked together on the documentary films Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark, will explore climate change and the irreversible impacts of human life on the planet through the Anthropocene Project, which combines art, environment science and anthropology.

Read the full article here.

Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada to co-present major exhibitions detailing the impact of humans on Earth

#AnthropoceneProject unveils new works by the artist collective of Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier

TORONTO and OTTAWA – Next fall, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the Canadian Photography Institute (CPI) of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) will co-present Anthropocene, a major new contemporary art exhibition that tells the story of human impact on the Earth through film, photography, and new experiential technologies. Co-produced with MAST Foundation, Bologna, Italy, the exhibition is a component of the multi-disciplinary Anthropocene Project from the collective of photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. Organized by the artists in partnership with the three organizations, Anthropocene will run at the AGO and NGC simultaneously from September 2018 through early 2019.

Read the Press Release HERE.

Why Manufactured Landscapes' message about consumption is more important than ever

CBC Arts

David Suzuki, Sophie Hackett and Darrell Varga look back at the award-winning 2006 documentary.

At their best, movies have the power to challenge our perspectives and help us see the bigger picture. It's hard to think of a more literal example than Manufactured Landscapes. Directed by Jennifer Baichwal — and featuring spectacular images from Canadian photographer Ed Burtynsky — the film takes us to some of humanity's most mesmerizing industrial landscapes. From a factory in China that employs some 23,000 people to world's largest dam, which has uprooted more than 1 million people since it was built, it's a stunning exploration.

Read the full article here.

The Filmmakers airs this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. (9 NT) on CBC Television, or stream it at cbc.ca/watch. After the episode, stick around to see this week's feature presentation, Manufactured Landscapes.

An Audain Art Museum Special Exhibition EDWARD BURTYNSKY: THE SCARRED EARTH

By Rebecca Wood Barrett
Whistler Traveller

“Many of these works are quite large, usually a minimum of one metre high and two metres wide,” says Darrin Martens, the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky chief curator of the museum. “When you’re looking at these works you become in some ways very immersed in the situation. You are part of that experience of witnessing.”

Read the full article here.

Edward Burtynsky – Interview, Part III

By Kevin Raber
The Luminous Landscape

Prints, Studio and Color Lab

Kevin Raber and Edward Burtynsky discuss one of his prints

My interview with Ed Burtynsky continues with this final segment. This is the part I enjoyed the most as Ed and I talk about his prints and why and how he makes such big prints. For Ed, it’s all about the print. As he explains when looking through the viewfinder he is composing for the look. But, when the print is made the magic comes alive as the most minute details become visible.
I call it immersive imaging and for me, it is where the viewer looks at a large print from a distance and then finds something of interest and moves closer and closer to the print discovering new things in the print along the way. Ed calls it the six-inch test. The bottom line -Ed’s prints need to be viewed large and inspected close up. There are treasures to be seen in his photographs.

All of Pt. III here.

Edward Burtynsky – Interview, Part II

By Kevin Raber
The Luminous Landscape

Ed's Camera Gear

Continuing my interview with Ed Burtynsky, we talk about every photographer's favorite subject, cameras. Ed shares with us his evolution of camera systems from 4x5 and 8x10 film to the Hasselblad 100 mega-pixel digital camera. Much of Ed’s work is shot from high altitude, and he has a few stories about how that is accomplished. You’ll also hear why during the film days Ed decided to shoot his work with color negative film. He shares his evolution of color printing and how he went from a hybrid color workflow to his eventual full digital workflow.

Ed’s projects are related to man's effect on our world. One of his most noted projects is one about water. I have included links below to clips of the watermark project. These short clips and the film itself will get you thinking. The same as his Landscape Of Oil project.

All of Part II here.

Edward Burtynsky – Interview, Part I

By Kevin Raber
The Luminous Landscape

Throughout the years there is one photographer who I have admired, and that is Edward Burtynsky. He’s a landscape photographer like most of us, but he’s a different kind of landscape photographer. He focuses on landscapes that man has changed. His work is stunning. It draws a viewer in, and your eye wants to explore all the details.

Edward is a true photographer because for him taking the photo is one part, but making the print is the second and the most important part. His prints are large, very large. Because of this, he has had to use cameras that would allow him to print big. He’s worked with 8x10 cameras and, as of lately, the Hasselblad H6D 100.

All of Part I here.

Edward Burtynsky's Striking Images of India's Salt Pans

By Ellyn Kail

Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky describes the terrain of the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, India, as “scorched,” “cracked,” and “parched.” The Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright compares it to cat litter. Between October and June of every year, the Agariya people live along the salt pans, harvesting salt in temperatures so extreme they must work barefoot.

Burtynsky created the 31 photographs in Salt Pans over ten days in the Little Rann of Kutch. He was there in April of 2016, towards the end of salt production season, which runs from October through June each year. He documented the well-worn land by helicopter, hovering several hundred feet above the ground.

Read the full article here.

#UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grad Edward Burtynsky

By Romi Levi
University of Toronto News

Acclaimed photographer Edward Burtynsky’s fascination with industrial landscapes has taken him around the world, from the nickel tailings of Sudbury, Ont., to the salt pans of Gujarat, India.

The striking images he captures provide a visual commentary on human achievement and its often negative impact on the environment.

Today, Burtynsky will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, “for his excellence in the arts, as a Canadian photographer who has had a profound influence on society through his vivid portrayal of environmental issues.” He is among 16 people being recognized with honorary degrees by the University of Toronto in 2017.

Read the full article here.

A look at our Scarred Earth

By Cathryn Atkinson
Pique News Magazine

Famed Canadian fine art photographer Edward Burtynsky is in Toronto at the Telus "Our Planet, Our Future" panel with other distinguished speakers, including former astronaut Roberta Bondar and Dianne Saxe, the environmental commissioner of Ontario.

In his speech, part of which is shared on social media, he asks how many in the audience know the definition of Anthropocene, the era in which we find ourselves.

For those who don't, it refers to the geological age in which human activity dominates climate and the environment.

Burtynsky has spent three decades bearing witness to the Anthropocene as an artist, whether it is his photographs depicting the impact of the Three Gorges Dam in China, or the extraction of bitumen near Fort McMurray.

Read the full article here.

Burtynsky photo exhibit set to open at Audain Art Museum

By Alyssa Noel
Whistler Question

With a skilled eye, honed from years of practice, renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has the ability to make the appalling beautiful.

From a mountain of discarded tires to tailings ponds and open pit mines, upon first glance the viewer often doesn’t know what they’re looking at until they delve a little deeper.

Burtynsky’s work will be on display in Whistler through the summer at the Audain Art Museum as part of The Scarred Earth, a collection of 32 photographs.

Read the full article here.

TOP 10 CANADIAN ART BOOKS

Indigo

Essential Elements makes Indigo's Top 10 Canadian Art Books list.

View the full list here.