Edward Burtynsky

Powerful images show the environmental impact of recent industrialization in Africa.

by

In the light-filled back room of the Paul Kuhn Gallery, I’m both transfixed and perplexed by the colours in a photograph by Edward Burtynsky. Salt Flats #2, Sua Pan, Botswana holds luscious swirls of cherry-blossom pinks and amethyst purples. It’s so mesmerizing, I barely wonder what it is.

The image, part of the Toronto photographer’s latest body of work, African Studies, is on view in Calgary until May 27. Burtynsky’s large colour prints show aerial views from across Sub-Saharan Africa shot between 2015 and 2020 using fixed-wing planes, helicopters and drones. He visited 10 countries in all – Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar and Tanzania. 

Burtynsky’s interest was sparked by his earlier work in China in 2004, where he documented the massive scale of that country’s escalating industrialization. “I realized even then that the African continent was poised to become the next, perhaps even the last, territory for major industrial expansion,” he says. 

The prints, housed in black frames, are not mounted behind glass but are covered instead with an invisible protective film. The result is a satiny finish that enhances each work’s rich texture and details, whether roads, rail lines, industrial equipment or even tiny people.  

The type of Burtynsky images we have pondered over the years – carved-up mountains, heaps of used tires, row upon row of factory workers or vivid, orange-tinted tailing ponds – are largely absent here. Instead, aesthetically driven images showing unfamiliar views of industrial extraction sites dominate.  

Salt Ponds #4, Near Naglou Sam Sam, Senegal, for example, recalls the pioneering non-representational work of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Tidy spirals of colour dot a curious yet striking landscape. Minutes pass as my eye jumps from pool to pool – comparing, discovering, delighting. 

Likewise, I am drawn to a blue-green waterscape with a curious ribbon of detail that seems to dance along a rugged coastline. On close inspection, I am thrilled to discover pink flamingos. Wildlife is a rare occurrence in Burtynsky’s work. What’s going on here?

Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans, pictured in Salt Flats #2, undergo a major transformation each year. As one of the largest salt pans in the world, this former lake has been seasonally dry for thousands of years. However, following the rainy season, the pans temporarily become a lush, shallow lake where wildebeests, zebras and migrating birds abound.

Multiple threats are encroaching on this bedrock of life, perhaps the place where humans first evolved. Fences are starting to interrupt wildlife migrations, the extraction of salt and soda ash is underway, and the possibility of diverting water for irrigation promises to wreak havoc on a timeless ecosystem. 

Likewise, Lake Borgoria, in Kenya, the setting for Flamingos #1, is suffering from intensive livestock farming, human habitation and the growth of poisonous vegetation, a reality that’s hushed up by the regional tourism industry. But with the increasingly dramatic shifts brought on climate change, the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association warns the region faces a spiral of environmental carnage.

As with vintage Burtynsky, a little context makes these images as worrying as they are visually satisfying.

Continuing through the show, themes spring to mind from the 1970s’ New Topographics photographers, including Americans Robert Adams and Stephen Shore, who were occupied with landscape and the interplay of aesthetics with social and political realities.  

Looking at images such as Tsaua Mountains #1, Sperrgebiet, Namibia and Sishen Iron Ore Mine #5, Tailings, Kathu, South Africa, I’m reminded of intriguing aerial abstractions by American photographers Emmet Gowin and Richard Misrach. A change in perspective has proven successful for access to sensitive sites and for the reflections the resulting images prompt in viewers.

As Burtynsky’s career has soared, so too have his efforts to educate people about environmental issues, particularly related to globalization and unsustainable industrial expansion driven by huge international corporations. 

“I hope to continue raising awareness about the cost of growing our civilization without the necessary consideration for sustainable industrial practices,” says Burtynsky, who notes the “dire need” for global governmental initiatives and binding international legislation.

Over recent decades, humanity has begun collectively to understand the extreme dangers of climate change – and the need to consider our limits. In African Studies, Burtynsky shows us the troubling implications of yet more industrial expansion. ■

Edward Burtynsky: African Studies at the Paul Kuhn Gallery in Calgary from April 15 to May 27, 2023.

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