Stranger than Fiction
Leah Oates
"Manufacturing Landscape" is the first major touring retrospective of Toronto-based photographer Edward Burtynsky that brings together 60 works from private and public collections. Burtynsky chooses locations that have been changed by modern industrial activity and his work examines the intersection between land, technology and thus the human imprint on the earth.
Burtynsky’s photographs are not intended to be a political statement against the devastation caused by industry, nor are they meant to celebrate the achievements of human and technological progress. Burtynsky states that his photographs serve merely to document aspects of manufacturing and technological production that are usually overlooked.
Politics is not the first thing that comes to mind while viewing Burtynsky’s photographs. "Manufacturing Landscape" is a gorgeous and powerful show and politics does not enter one’s mind until after the fact. Burtynsky is such a skilled photographer that the images seem monumental and singular documents of the earth being altered and inhabited by humans. The work is very much about human ego, greed, folly, messiness and a group mentality played out on the surface of earth. Burtynsky’s photographs seduce the viewer with their loveliness, yet there is a disturbing delayed reaction derived from these same images. The images slowly become frightening as one absorbs the scale of destruction and alteration that is being documented.
Burtynsky’s work is very effective visually because he seduces you with the exquisiteness of his images while never being overtly political. The politics inherent in the work sink in after repeated viewings. Burtynsky’s work becomes better when one really spends the time to look beyond the gorgeousness of the imagery. It’s as if one feels a sort of vertigo of falling into a seductive yet ultimately ugly place.
The show is broken down into two sections. The first section was shot in America, Canada and India at industrial sites. The second half is newer work that was shot in China, also at industrial sites. The entire show is very strong but, like any show, some work is better, and Burtynsky’s new work shot in China is truly brilliant.
The China series has many contrasts that heighten the visual drama and as a result the work becomes more menacing. It pops with bright color against drab backdrops; there is order yet disarray simultaneously. There are large groups of people in consistently bright colors that gather in the environments they are altering yet they seem absurd, fragile and without identity. They seem like worker bees that are just another element of nature being used (no different than the earth they are altering) to get to an end. The work is at its most fantastic in its repetition, uniformity and sheer folly of the push towards "progress" as packs of worker bees in bright uniforms are unwittingly putting wreckage into motion. It seems almost an inevitable part of human evolution in Burtynsky’s images. He presents this in the most beautiful manner, which is the most palatable way to present such ugliness. He captures this from what most people would call commonplace locations and people with nothing really attractive about them.
This adds necessary comedy and depth to the work that the previous work lacked. Burtynsky’s work is so beautiful and well-composed that is can remained on the surface and be too formal as a result. The work shot in China is messier, stranger and more surreal and one accurately witnesses the bizarre nature of human ego played out on the surface of earth. There is no staging going on in his work and he shoots directly from the location. This in itself is an achievement and harkens back to previous photographers such as Bruce Davidson or Mitch Epstein who shot directly from life.
Lest you think that the images shot in China are specifically about Chinese culture, think again. With the exception of a few images, most of Burtynsky’s work from this series shows a flattening or homogenization of culture against the backdrop of industrial progress. While the series was shot in China it could have been shot in any industrial nation. What is interesting about this is that industry and technology level and even out culture universally and the experience is the same for the earth and for individuals despite their culture. Burtynsky is attempting to communicate in the China series the common experience across the globe of dehumanization on industrial sites and in industry and how humans get swept up into the alteration of the earth to their own detriment, sometimes against their will and sometimes without full knowledge of what is transpiring.
Nature however retains its force and individuality through both parts of the show. The images show trash piles, glowing pollution in water flowing down stream, rock being cut and yet people are the ones who become part of a mass and they seem insignificant in comparison, which adds the drama needed to heighten the visual strength of the work. We seem so fragile compared to the earth and to our push towards "progress."
The lack of staging in Burtynsky’s work makes the show all that more visually intriguing because it does not follow current trends in photography but rather adheres to documentary landscapes of the past. His work is a direct document of humans and the planet at this time. Burtynsky truly shows without any filters the weirdness of humans in groups and their seemingly obsessive need to change the earth. Burtynsky’s work shows through sheer talent and a very present eye that life is indeed stranger than fiction.
