Ever wonder where everything we consume comes from, and goes to after we're through with it? I was reading the Manitoban today and saw that the Winnipeg Art Gallery was showing an exhibition of photographs by
Edward Burtynsky. I've seen his photographs (the nickel tailings one especially) in books (there's also a documentary film called "Manufactured Landscapes") so I think I'm going to have to see this exhibition.
In a way, they are strangely beautiful. They show something that we rarely see or acknowledge; that our patterns of consumption utterly transform the landscape in which we live. Yet, it is left up to the viewer to decide what they mean. Here are a few:
Nickel Tailings No. 34,
Sudbury, Ontario 1996
Nickel Tailings No. 36,
Sudbury, Ontario 1996
Westar Open Pit Coal Mine No. 19,
Sparwood, British Columbia 1985
Iberia Quarries # 1,
Marmetal Co., Borba, Portugal, 2006
Oxford Tire Pile No. 7,
Westley, California 1999
Oil Fields No. 24,
Oil Sands, Fort McMurray, Alberta 2001
Oil Fields No. 2,
Belridge, California 2002
China Recycling #9,
Circuit Boards, Guiyu, Guangdong Province, 2004
Tanggu Port,
Tianjin, 2005
Manufacturing #10A & 10B,
Cankun Factory, Xiamen City, 2005
