The Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, 68, has spent more than 40 years documenting the effect of humans on landscapes — shooting from a helicopter and more recently using drones. He was born in 1955 in the blue-collar city of St Catharines, Ontario, where his father, a Ukrainian immigrant, worked on the production line at the General Motors plant. His interest in photography began at the age of 11, when his father purchased a darkroom from a local widow. As a photography student in the late 1970s, inspired by American landscape photographers such as Ansel Adams, Burtynsky took detailed, textured images of the pristine Canadian countryside. In the 1980s and 1990s he shifted his focus to the scars of industry. Driven primarily by environmental concerns, he
SPECTRUM
The eye-opening aerial photographs of Edward Burtynsky
For more than four decades, the Canadian photographer has documented from above the extraordinary effect of man’s impact on landscapes
The Xiluodu Hydropower Station, one of the world’s largest, under construction on the Yangtze River, Yunnan province, China, 2011
© EDWARD BURTYNSKY, COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY, LONDON
The Sunday Times
