Edward Burtynsky
Toronto. George Dunbar sends along this note about a recent New Yorker article on Toronto Photographer Ed Burtynsky:
“A superb feature article about Canadian photographer, Edward Burtynsky, appears in the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine (Dec. 19 & 26). “The Long View” by Raffi Khatchadourian describes Burtynsky’s early life, education, marriage, business (Toronto Image Works) and his current world-wide travels as an “art photographer.”
“His amazing photographs of “a changing planet” are now appreciated in galleries and museums.”
I first heard about Burtynsky when I went to TIFF with my youngest a decade ago. We stood in line on a rainy September day waiting to go in to see Manufactured Landscapes and listen to its director, Jennifer Baichwal. A screw-up in tickets left us with a single ticket. My daughter waited in line after I went in. A second screw-up resulted in the interview and show proceeding while seats stood empty and no line up was allowed to enter.
The film opened my eyes to the awe inspiring size of Chinese factories and their efficiency, plus the devastation reeked on south Asian shores to recover Western iron and precious metals. Some time later, on a PHSC visit to the AGO, I saw one of Burtynsky’s photographs of the Three Gorges Dam being built in China – a massive-size photograph, awesome in its detail and scope.
