Edward Burtynsky’s Manufactured Landscapes

By Jennifer Baichwal
2006, Canada, 90 mins
with introduction
English with Dutch subtitles

Edward Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of ‘manufactured landscapes’ – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as “stunning” or “beautiful,” and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them. The film follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country photographing the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. Manufactured Landscapes allows us to meditate on our profound impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste.

There is a a selection of Burtynsky’s photographs in the exhibition ‘Growth’, hall Hoofdgebouw, March 13 - April 13.