224 - Edward Burtynsky
A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers
Art, Sustainability, and Social Change
Exploring the intricate relationship between artwork, sustainability, and social change as the speaker discusses their large-scale projects focused on human enterprise and environmental issues. Reflecting on the impact of art in sparking conversations about sustainability and advocating for a slower, more engaging approach to viewing artwork.
Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet. Edward's photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid; the Tate Modern in London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.
Edward was born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BAA in Photography/Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 1982, and has since received both an Alumni Achievement Award (2004) and an Honorary Doctorate (2007) from his alma mater. He is still actively involved in the university community, and sits on the board of directors for The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre).
In 1985, Edward founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging, and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community.
Early exposure to the General Motors plant and watching ships go by in the Welland Canal in Edward’s hometown helped capture his imagination for the scale of human creation, and to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet — an inspection of the human systems we've imposed onto natural landscapes.
Exhibitions include: Anthropocene (2018) at the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada (international touring exhibition); Water (2013) at the New Orleans Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Center in Louisiana (international touring exhibition); Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (five-year international touring show), China (toured internationally from 2005 - 2008); Manufactured Landscapes at the National Gallery of Canada (toured from 2003 - 2005); and Breaking Ground produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (toured from 1988 - 1992). Edward's visually compelling works are currently being exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the globe, including at London’s Saatchi Gallery where his largest solo exhibition to-date, entitled Extraction/Abstraction, is currently on show until 6th May 2024.
Edward’s distinctions include the inaugural TED Prize (which he shared with Bono and Robert Fischell), the title of Officer of the Order of Canada, and the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for Art. In 2018 Edward was named Photo London's Master of Photography and the Mosaic Institute's Peace Patron. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Arts & Letters Award at the Canadian Association of New York’s annual Maple Leaf Ball and the 2019 Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography. In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship and in 2022 was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award by the World Photography Organization. Most recently he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and was named the 2022 recipient for the annual Pollution Probe Award. Edward currently holds eight honorary doctorate degrees and is represented by numerous international galleries all over the world.
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
- The environmental impact of farming
- Whether he planned his career
- Why he started a lab to finance his photography
- And how being an entrepreneur feeds into his work as an artist
- Vertical Integration
- Examples of challenging situations he has faced
- The necessity for his work to be commoditised
- 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
Referenced:
“The evocation of the sense of wonder and the sense of the surreal, or the improbable, or ‘what am I looking at?’, to me is interesting in a time where images are so consumed; that these are not for quick consumption they’re for… slow. And I think that when things reveal themselves slowly and in a more challenging way, they become more interesting as objects to leave in the world. That they don’t just reveal themselves immediately, you can’t just get it in one quick glance and you’re done, no, these things ask you to look at them and spend time with them. And I discover things in them sometimes that I never saw before. They’re loaded with information.”
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