Burtynsky. Troubled Waters.
Hazan editions| N° d'inventaire | 23967 |
| Format | 30.5 X 24 |
| Détails | 144 pages, numerous color photographs, paperback |
| Publication | Paris, 2021 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782754112208 |
Official catalogue of the exhibition Edward Burtynsky – Troubled Waters from June 23 to September 26, 2021 at the Pavillon populaire - Montpellier photography space.
From the Gulf of Mexico to the banks of the Ganges, a striking aerial imagery depicts water and the systems devised by humans to control it, posing a question to present and future humanity about its relationship with this vital resource that is dangerously dwindling. Over the past five years, Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky has traveled the world, from the Gulf of Mexico to the banks of the Ganges, to construct an ambitious representation of the increasingly fragmented water cycle. Through his immense, colorful aerial images, many of which border on abstraction, he traces the various roles water plays in our modern way of life: the foundation of healthy ecosystems and energy sources, a key element of cultural and religious rituals, and, above all, an essential resource that will very soon be exhausted.
Many of these images focus almost more on the systems humans have put in place to harness, shape, and control it, not the water itself. Photographs of labyrinthine stepwells in India, massive dam construction and aquaculture in China, prefabricated waterfront cities and irrigation systems in the American West are presented alongside parched landscapes, drained river regions, and salt marshes with ominously colored shrimp farms. Some of these photographs are among the most abstract images Burtynsky has made to date: center-pivot irrigation plots are carefully modeled into totemic, geometric stacks, while dryland agricultural fields are transformed into dizzying collections of biomorphic forms. These images, sometimes elegant, sometimes haunting, are placed between the worlds of painting and photography and form a portrait of water in the moving world that seems to pose an open question about the past, present and future relationship between humanity and the natural world.
This book explores the increasingly strained relationship between humanity and this most essential natural resource in the world.
Official catalogue of the exhibition Edward Burtynsky – Troubled Waters from June 23 to September 26, 2021 at the Pavillon populaire - Montpellier photography space.
From the Gulf of Mexico to the banks of the Ganges, a striking aerial imagery depicts water and the systems devised by humans to control it, posing a question to present and future humanity about its relationship with this vital resource that is dangerously dwindling. Over the past five years, Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky has traveled the world, from the Gulf of Mexico to the banks of the Ganges, to construct an ambitious representation of the increasingly fragmented water cycle. Through his immense, colorful aerial images, many of which border on abstraction, he traces the various roles water plays in our modern way of life: the foundation of healthy ecosystems and energy sources, a key element of cultural and religious rituals, and, above all, an essential resource that will very soon be exhausted.
Many of these images focus almost more on the systems humans have put in place to harness, shape, and control it, not the water itself. Photographs of labyrinthine stepwells in India, massive dam construction and aquaculture in China, prefabricated waterfront cities and irrigation systems in the American West are presented alongside parched landscapes, drained river regions, and salt marshes with ominously colored shrimp farms. Some of these photographs are among the most abstract images Burtynsky has made to date: center-pivot irrigation plots are carefully modeled into totemic, geometric stacks, while dryland agricultural fields are transformed into dizzying collections of biomorphic forms. These images, sometimes elegant, sometimes haunting, are placed between the worlds of painting and photography and form a portrait of water in the moving world that seems to pose an open question about the past, present and future relationship between humanity and the natural world.
This book explores the increasingly strained relationship between humanity and this most essential natural resource in the world.