Edward Burtynsky

Born in 1955 Edward Burtysnky is an artist who has been featured in numerous museums. His is best know work which depicts industrial waste and the industrial process. An example of this would be his Quarries series. In this series he took pictures of open quarries around the world. It amazing to look at these quarries not only because of the amount of detail in each image but also because of how beautiful they are. Another one of his series deals with urban mines and how there are huge heaps of recycled parts that people dig through in order to make a living. Its interesting to hear the background story on these urban mines and how they came to exist. Often times they take over an entire community and force the community to rely on the money they get from recycling the heavy metals found in these trash heaps. What great about his work is how raw it is. There is no attempt to make a place beautiful through strange lighting or sunsets. Instead Burtynsky lets the places speak for themselves. He shows them as he comes upon them and captures them in a very plain style. However because of the interesting and colorful qualities of these places that are almost never seen to the average person the work stands out and is fascinating to look at. In conclusion its amazing how Edward Burtysnky is able to make interesting the waste and destruction caused by industrialization.