Last week I was able to visit Burtynsky’s OIL exhibition at
the Photographer’s Gallery in London.
After reading the reviews, I was keen to see this body of work and see
for myself what all the excitement was about.
When I thought about the word oil and what this exhibition
could possibly be about I conjured up images of money, wealth, deserts, cars, greed
and I suppose lastly the effect the oil industry has on our planet.
However, I did some preliminary research and found the
themes of the exhibition included:
- · The industrialisation of land
- · Photography as a medium for environmental issues
- · The visual language of scale, perspective and detail
For over 12 years Edward Burtynsky has travelled the world
documenting oil extraction, refinement and its effects. The exhibition OIL shows a selection of work
from these travels including:
- · Extraction and Refinement
- · Transportation and Motor Culture
- · The End of Oil
“In 1997, it occurred to
me that all the vast man-altered landscapes I had perused for over 20 years had
been made possible by the discovery of oil and the progress occasioned by the
internal combustion engine. Over the
next 12 years I researched and photographed the largest oil fields I could
find. I went on to make images of
refineries, freeways interchanges, automobile plants and the scrap industry resulting
from the recycling of cars. I began to
look at motor culture, where vast tribes come together with vehicles as the
main attraction”. Edward Burtynsky
As part of the research I listened to his talk (link below)
where he describes himself as a fine art photographer who struggled to get away
from the trap of the ‘calendar art’ type landscape images. It was by accident after taking a wrong turn
and getting lost that he came upon an open coal mine which was a landscape “totally
surreal, transformed by man.” It was
then that he discovered that the two could work together – the landscape and
man’s transformation and industrialisation of the landscape and this could be
his lifetimes work.
Extraction and Refinement and The End of Oil contain images
of places that are often remote and not known to us. They are vast landscapes that are scarred by
the extraction of oil: oil fields, refineries and the urban sprawl invading our natural landscapes.
Although his images show the horror of man's influence or invasion of his natural landscape there is also a beauty in his imagery. They are attractive and repulsive in almost equal measure. The use of a large format camera brings out the detail in his images and works well with his use of scale.
The beauty and the horror also works to highlight the contradiction of man wanting all the trappings of the good life despite the consequences of that on our landscape. In his images we see first hand what we are usually shielded from - the processes required to give us the materialism we crave. We can see first hand the destruction of our landscape which ensures we have oil for our cars.
Transportation and Motor Culture is a series of work that sets out to depict man's dependence on motor vehicles not just for work but also for recreational purposes. As someone who is not that interested in cars I found this particularly stimulating. The land speed trials starting line in Utah, Talladega Speedway and the rows of Harleys at the Kiss concert are a sad reminder of man's obsession with the motor vehicle and also are dependence on oil.
Burtynsky draws attention to the coming end of oil as we face its rising cost which is having a huge impact on us now but also the dwindling supplies and availability.
From a photographic point of view, Burtynsky uses large format cameras to capture every detail in his images. This can be seen in his work on the interiors of oil refineries and also the vast landscapes.
His large scale prints add impact to the themes in OIL with some work presented as diptychs to highlight the vastness of the landscapes.
As someone who is interested in landscape photography and also industrialisation of the landscape I found the birds-eye view Burtynsky's images very appealing. However, I'm not sure when the day will come where I'll be able to utilise helicopters and cranes in my work!
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