Exhibition Review: Edward Burtynsky | African Studies
Written by Wenjie (Demi) Zhao
Copy Edited by Robyn Hager
Photo Edited by Haley Winchell
Shot from up to 7,000 feet above, 10 countries, in 7 years, Edward Burtynsky’s latest series African Studies premieres in New York at two solo gallery exhibitions: Howard Greenberg Gallery in Midtown and Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea. On view from March to April, Burtynsky’s African Studies is a thought-provoking collection of aerial photographs that offer a polychrome and multi-layered commentary on the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world. The painterly and disarmingly beautiful images of natural and industrial landscapes chronicle Burtynsky’s ongoing dedication to environmental awareness and human’s industrial footprints across the globe. He starts a conversation with the viewer by stating “our earth is BEAUTIFUL,” but leaves the second half of the unfinished sentence for us to answer: if we don’t protect it properly, the beauty of the planet will cease to exist.
For this project, the acclaimed Canadian photographer has traveled to Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar and Tanzania between 2015 and 2020. Flying over rift valleys, salt ponds, iron ore mines, sand dunes, tea plantations, and sulfur springs, Edward Burtynsky’s lens opens up a new world for us. Within his works, the miracle of nature is revealed in all its wonders. As viewers we may wonder: is nature itself a great abstractionist painter? The extraordinary range of color palette and sumptuous tones are composed to depict the primordial land of Sub-Saharan Africa. The untouched landscapes unfold before our eyes, telling a primeval story of nature, formation, and the earth. The vastness and beauty of the wilderness was a “revelation” not only to Burtynsky, but also to us, which provided a “contrapuntal balance” to a lengthy exposition of heavily industrialized landscapes, agriculture, and urban development as the photographer himself recounts.
African Studies is a joint collaboration between Edward Burtynsky and nature. In “Sulfur Springs #1,” Burtynsky captures the essence of the surreal and otherworldly Dallol region in Ethiopia. The photograph portrays a breathtakingly beautiful yet hauntingly desolate landscape, with pools of brilliantly colored sulfur water surrounded by jagged rocks and ripples rising from the ground. From where the magma meets the ground a wonder springs forth, like a boiling pool of fiery hue, where steam and sulfur dance anew. The water now bears the mark of sulfur’s kiss: a vivid yellow, an orange glow, which hinds at the Earth’s depths below. Burtynsky’s photograph is a testament to the Earth’s power, a place of wonder, a sacred bower. For here, amidst the rocks and streams, a fragile ecosystem does gleam, where life adapts, and thrives, and glows.
In Burtynsky’s work, nature finds repose. His African Studies document complex natural phenomenons and distill the continent’s diverse topography into graphic patterns, offering a glimpse into the power and beauty of the Earth’s geology, while also serving as a reminder of the need to preserve our natural resources. It is an exhibition of profound depth that depicts the natural world’s breath. The landscape’s sublime beauty comes with a dire plea: to grow our civilization sustainably and consciously protect the limited natural resources. Between content and form, marks of human infrastructure and painterly abstract compositions, Burtynsky’s photographs provoke our soul to act and save, and to make the Earth a place where seeds will grow again.