Ivanov VCU Grad Photo Research: Artist review 1: Edward Burtynsky

Significance
First main reason to choose Burtynsky is the type of work I do - environmentally concerned and often in the same pictorial language he uses. The second reason is that I have seen his work in person (Oil, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC). Experiencing it first hand makes a huge difference from seeing it on a web site or in a book as I got a better understanding of it. Thus behind the brilliant photographs and presentation I can appreciate the conceptual approach, the way he handles the topics he works with, his communication with people giving access to photograph, people supporting him and people people depicted in the images.

Artist Biography: Born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage at St. Catharines, Ontario, Burtynsky is a graduate of Ryerson University (Bachelor of Applied Arts in Photography) and studied Graphic Art at Niagara College in Welland. He links his early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown to the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places. In 1985, Burtynsky also founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging and new media computer-training centre catering to all levels of Toronto's art community. Mr. Burtynsky also sits on the board of directors for: Toronto’s international photography festival, Contact and The Ryerson Gallery and Research Center.
Exhibitions include Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (five-year international touring show), Manufactured Landscapes at the National Gallery of Canada (touring from 2003 - 2005), Before the Flood (2003), and China (toured 2005 - 2008). Burtynsky's visually compelling works have recently been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, in the United States, Europe and Asia.
An active lecturer on photographic art, Mr. Burtynsky's speaking engagements include the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, The Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the TED conference, Idea City, and Ryerson University in Toronto. His images have appeared various periodicals, among them: Art in America, Art News, The Smithsonian, Harper's Magazine, Flash Art, Blind Spot, Art Forum, Saturday Night, Canadian Art, Playboy, National Geographic Society and the New York Times.

Quotes:
1) "As a relatively invisible phenomenon, oil is generally a non-photographic subject, until the artist focuses his attention upon it. What Burtynsky photographs is the industry, technology and culture of oil... By doing so he provides a great deal of visual information on a subject that is often, from an aesthetic point of view, overlooked within the world of visual art. ...
As a photographer he shows us its intrinsic and aesthetic qualities through the composition, the distance that he adopts with respect to his subject (often from a high vantage point) and the strong balance with which he manages to unite conceptual with visual ideas. This is no straightforward journalistic approach. The strategy of Edward Burtynsky is simple: follow the oil. In this pursuit, his classically inspired, precise and detailed visual language is overwhelmingly effective. But the awe-inspiring quality of his photographs lies mainly in the suggestion of scale¬—both within the images and in the worldwide scope of his project."
ARTDAILY.ORG December 1, 2009

2) "As Burtynsky ups the real-world ante, his digital chromogenic color prints make the most of the art that photography has become. ... It's time to give him credit for turning a postindustrial vision of the depleted modern world into a metaphor for the present global predicament, and for envisioning a new kind of 21st-century Sublime. "
ARTNEWS by: Kim Levin January 1, 2010

Images: