Edward Burtynsky

Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, 2004

Edward Burtynsky’s harrowing photographs confront the realities of industrialization and abuse of Earth’s natural resources. The Ship Breaking series is one of the most essential images in Burtynsky’s oeuvre, in which he documents the dismantling of cargo ships in Bangladesh and India. Burtynsky presents these sites with dystopian overtones, analyzing the behemoth ship forms with criticism and awe in equal measure. In an interview he described his unforgettable experience, “I was thrown into this frenetic landscape. I felt I was being overtaken by this crazy Mad Max world where Lilliputian workers were up against a giant that they were taking down a piece at a time” (“The Essential Element: An Interview with Edward Burtynsky”, Manufactured Landscapes, p. 55).