Edward Burtynsky
Alberta Oil Sands, #6, Fort McMurray, Alberta, 2007. Chromogenic colour photograph
The seductive-repulsive duality of Edward Burtynsky's photographs stems from his juxtaposition of their undoubted aesthetic allure as images with the environmental abuses of their subject-matter. The scenes evoke an almost Sublime sense of awe at the scale of human intervention and fear of its environmental consequences. In the chicken plant, Burtynsky focuses his camera and artist’s eye on the human servitude and control needed to produce food on a factory basis, in which cost is the defining factor.
