Review: Edward Burtynsky "Oil"

Edward Burtynsky
Oil
Nicholas Metivier Gallery
October 8 – October 31 2009
Edward Burtynsky is possibly the most well-known Canadian photographer currently exhibiting and creating work. He has a strong influence in Toronto, having founded Toronto Image Works – one of the city’s main digital and darkroom facilities. Burtynsky’s work is featured in numerous public and corporate collections around the world and has been featured in an eighty-minute, award-winning documentary film titled Manufactured Landscapes (2006), directed by Jennifer Baichwal.
With such a high level of success, there is much to be expected of any collection of the artist’s work. Photographs exhibited in Oil offer a strong presentation of his body of work, offering the viewer a multitude of scenes related to industrial development and its effects on our environment. Photographic subjects in this exhibition are related to the extraction, consumption and disposal of oil and oil products. Most images are devoid of people, focusing instead on that which is man-made. Burtynsky chooses to photograph the Alberta Oil sands, oil extraction fields, refineries, intersections of major highways, as well as the disposed tires and oil tankers that are waiting to rejoin the cycle of commodity.
These depicted structures are ecologically, politically and economically charged with numerous messages and meanings. Despite being tied to a number of conflicting discourses, Burtynsky’s work effectively transcends the arguments surrounding his subject matter. Instead, the artist aims to elevate mundane, man-made structures to a realm that is beyond our day-to-day experience. Burtynsky successfully isolates and makes strange these environments that we, as humans, have created for ourselves. In the book Manufactured Landscapes, Lori Pauli states that “Burtynsky has altered our understanding of the sublime landscape, giving us a new appreciation for the man-made sublime.” Environments from our daily lives take one a new meaning within these works, transcending their functional use and becoming monumental subjects of these photographs.
The artist’s photographic method is key to the effectiveness of his work. Using a large-format film camera and infinite focus, Burtynsky is able to capture a hyper-realistic level of detail in each image. The photograph’s static depiction of a particular place in time alters one’s finite viewpoint of a scene, providing a viewpoint that is specific to the experience of photography. Also, each image shows that the artist is highly sensitive to the natural and artificial light that illuminates his subjects. One can observe the use of warm light that is characteristic to shooting early or late in the day, as well as the glowing halo of artificial light that is captured at night. This strategic use of light adds to the monumentality of his image, allowing the viewer to experience these man-made structures in a particular way.
Lastly, the composition of each picture is strongly ordered, generating a rhythm that resonates throughout each image. Some photographs have prominent centrifugal activity that invites the eye to expand outward from the center of the image. Other works contain strong lines that suggest a network of paths for the eye to follow throughout the image. This adds to a sense of rhythm that reverberates throughout the entire exhibition, unifying these photographs in one collective, underlying narrative.
Burtynsky’s greatest achievement comes from his profound depiction of the narrative of oil, one of humankind’s most necessary commodities. Each image goes beyond one’s daily, mundane experiences of product consumption, inviting the viewer the look at man-made environments in a new way. In representing the narrative of oil, Burtynsky’s photographs reflect the global exchanges of humans in our collective habits of survival.

Selena L. Lee



Works Cited:
Pauli, Lori. Manufactured Landscapes. National Gallery of Canada: Ottawa. 2003. 22.