ANALYSIS: EDWARD BURTYNSKY

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and is most formally known for his large format photograph of industrial landscapes. 

Burtynsky's work depict how nature has been transformed through industry. He gives a contemporary view of the 'great ages of man' from stone,to minerals oil transpiration, mine and things of that nature. To make these ideas known to the audience Burtynsky states that "I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis."

One of the many photographs which stood out to me in Burtynsky's 'Oil' series was this photograph titled 'Breezewood' taken in 
Pennsylvania, USA. I was instantly drawn to this photograph as it was sort of the 'odd one out' amongst the other photographs in the series. The others were very industrial, consisting of mainly of colours such as browns,greens,greys and blues. However this was the most colourful with all its contrasting colours.
At first I could not actually believe that the photograph was real because of the mass amount of gas stations, shops and restaurants all crammed together along this one road. This photograph single-handedly shows how much we have evolved from having one little corner shop which sold everything from, your daily butter and bread to socks. Now we have massive franchises and everything is very fast paced. I feel very overwhelmed by on looking at this image, there is so much choice and variety that we tend to get in over our heads and this photograph demonstrates that perfectly.
The whole series 'Oil' is about one of man's most significant invention, the car. Burtynsky states, "The auto-mobile is the main basis for our modern industrial world, giving us a certain freedom and changing our world dramatically. The automobile was made possible because of the invention of the internal combustion engine and its utilization of both oil and gasoline. The raw material and the refining process contained both the idea and an interesting visual component for me." 
These are very clear ideas which are found in his work. The photograph depicts around 5 gas stations all within seconds of driving distance between them. 
What I get from this series is that as humans once we find something that essentially works or does really well we tend to over do things. We create replicates of these things in mass amounts (which in this case is the excessive amounts of gas stations) because we are either fear of them running out or there not being enough. There's a great sense of repetition in Burtynsky's work and I think that is one of the main themes across his whole body of work.
I found Burtynsky's work very interesting, and is a different and refreshing outlook on our world as it is today. His work give a real sense of perspective and quantity and they contain some sense of pattern throughout. What draws my attention the most about his work is the scale, this a quite large photographs ranging from 18 X 22 inches to 60 X 80 inches,allowing the viewer to see every small detail and I think this allows you to put yourself into the actual photograph and experience it for yourself.