Nickel Tailings #37, Sudbury, Ontario

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky’s perversely beautiful, large-scale photographs document the ramifications of human industry on the natural world. Throughout his pictures of strip mines, industrial refineries, homesteads, and ship-breaking yards, Burtynsky finds snatches of beauty. He fills his frames with striking color palettes and textural juxtapositions, and some compositions resemble abstract paintings. Burtynsky views his work as environmental advocacy; his photographs chronicle the cost of progress. He has also co-founded the Anthropocene Project, a multidisciplinary collaboration that captures humans’ impact on the earth. His work belongs in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museo Reina Sofía, the Tate, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has sold for six figures on the secondary market.