Edward Burtynsky’s photographs examine the complex relationship between the inexorable pursuit of industrial progress and its attendant devastation of the environment. Using a large format viewfinder camera, he has documented mining quarries in Canada, Italy, China, Spain, Portugal, India, and the United States. The Rock of Ages series depicts these monumental extractions from the granite mines of Barre, Vermont. Saturated in color and detail, the photographs provide tangible evidence of environmentally ruinous practices on an epic scale. The contradiction inherent in this visual allegory is characteristic of Burtynsky’s work; quarrying, a systematic depletion of natural resources, is nonetheless a necessity of industrial construction. At the same time, he resists an overtly didactic approach, allowing instead for a deliberate ambiguity that lends itself to an open-ended interpretation of the work. Despite, or perhaps because of, their unsettling context, Burtynsky successfully locates the sublime in the austerity of these altered landscapes.

Edward Burtynsky’s remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are in the collections of major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York, NY. Exhibitions include Manufactured Landscapes and Before the Flood, which were showcased in San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, London, and New York. He is an active lecturer, and his many professional distinctions include the TED Prize, The Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles, The Flying Elephant Fellowship, Applied Arts Magazine book awards, and the Roloff Beny Book Award. In 2007 he was awarded the title Officer of the Order of Canada. Edward Burtynsky is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto; Paul Kuhn Gallery in Calgary; Art 45 in Montreal; Charles Cowles Gallery in New York, NY; Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, CA; Flowers East in London, England; Galeria Toni Tapies in Barcelona, Spain; and Galerie Stefan Röpke in Köln. Burtynsky is a graduate of Ryerson University and Niagara College. For more information visit www.edwardburtynsky.com.