Is There Beauty in Our Destructive Ways ?

Depends on your point of view? I visited the exhibition of Edward Burtynsky's photographs at the Art Gallery of Ontario last night. He describes himself as exploring nature transformed through industry. His large-format photographs are of man's assault on the planet. Images of nickel tailings, abandoned mines, active marble quarries, rail-cuts, garbage dumps, shipwrecking on the beaches all document activities and places which all of us are ultimately responsible for. By our desire for a 'better life', each of us is integral in the processes which are ravaging the earth. Surprisingly, for activities which are necessary for our way of life, we rarely see images of these things. Is this because of a conscious desire to wash our hands of any blame? If more of us are exposed to these images, would we change our ways?

How are these places portrayed? Besides the subject of the photographs, there is the distortion of perception applied by Burtynsky himself. I was immediately aware of not only the subject of the images, but of the way Burtynsky photographed them. The images are taken with a large-format camera, providing control over aspects of the photographic process which a normal 35mm camera would not allow. He is interpreting the places he photographs. His images provide no real reference point with which to judge scale. They are tightly cropped, providing no end, no limit, to the subject itself. For example we cannot tell if the marble quarries continue on forever, or end just at the edge of his photographs. Mountains are photographed without top or bottom, cutting of our ability to judge just how big they are. Even with humans in the image, it is difficult to say just how big things are. Besides the cropping, Burtynsky alters perspective in many images by utilizing the tilt and shift capabilities of a view camera. Thus his images, from near to far, are in sharp focus, again short-circuiting our minds ability to judge scale. Why the play with scale, with perspective?

Maybe Burtynsky's compression of scale, a deliberate act, is a way to engage the viewer into asking questions about the scale of human activity on the planet? It's difficult to view the images of compressed metal cans, piles on piles of square blocks of scrap metal, without feeling responsible for such objects through our daily use of canned objects. How often do we think about the final resting place of the can we took our beans or pineapples from? Or what about the tires we run our cars on? They wear out eventually, no longer usable, but do they ever disappear, rot away, or are we doomed to have piles on piles of tires in some rarely visited place on Earth? I can imagine a time, when we humans have to compete for space with our own refuse. If this is not an ecological disaster waiting to happen I don't know what is? More and more our daily lives utilize objects which, once past their usable life, do not rot away, but persist indefinitely. Inadvertently, we have become immortal after-all.

Burtynsky's images are beautifully captured, breathtakingly awe-inspiring, meticulously crafted, but I'm not so sure I can say that what he photographs is inherently beautiful. It all depends on your point of view. See for yourself, here. Sadly, his images on the web do not do full justice to his large images, hanging on a gallery wall, but maybe they will entice you to seek out more images of our human ways.
- posted by the Tourist @ 17:28UTC - want to