Edward Burtynsky employs the startling scale and detail of large format photography to show us a few home truths. For his latest project he spent a decade behind the scenes of the oil industry to bring us imagery of the things we conveniently choose to ignore – the plundering of the earth, the disasters than can ensue, the waste we create and dump. Dramatic images such as a burning oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico sit alongside haunting glimpses into otherwise inaccessible worlds, like a gently sunlit shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh. His works reconnect us with the legacy of our lifestyles in the industrialised world, presenting imagery that is at once beautiful and disturbing. FAD spoke to Burtynsky at the opening of his latest exhibition, which marks the reopening of the newly refurbished Photographers’ Gallery in London.
Edward Burtynsky Oxford Tire Pile, #4, Westley, California, USA 1999 (c) Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/ Flowers, London
Film by Laura Bushell
With thanks to The Photographers Gallery.
