Edward Burtynsky | Water by Sundaram Tagore Gallery

E D WA R D B U R T Y N S K Y

Established in 2000, Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. We focus on developing exhibitions and hosting not-for-profit events that encourage spiritual, social and aesthetic dialogues. In a world where communication is instant and cultures are colliding and melding as never before, our goal is to provide venues for art that transcend boundaries of all sorts. With alliances across the globe, our interest in cross-cultural exchange extends beyond the visual arts into many other disciplines, including poetry, literature, performance art, film and music.

I NT R O D U CT I O N Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is known worldwide for his arresting images of industrial landscapes. His Water series, begun in 2007, is his largest and most ambitious project to date, documenting the scale and impact of manufacturing and human consumption on the world’s water supplies. In order to produce this vast body of work, Burtynsky traveled the world, shooting the photographs from 7,000 feet above to obtain the viewpoint necessary to bring the scale of the human imprint on the landscape into perspective.  He chronicles dramatic desertification in Iceland; India’s Kumbh Mela, where thirty million people gather to bathe in the Ganges; vast, science fiction-like irrigation sites in Texas; and dryland, or non-irrigated, farming in Spain, showing, in stunning color and intricate detail, how human interference is depleting this precious resource.    Edward Burtynsky’s works are in the collections of more than fifty museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; The Photographer’s Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. 6

Edward Burtynsky was recognized with a TED award in 2005. In 2006 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He holds six honorary doctorate degrees and his distinctions include the National Magazine Award, the MOCCA award, the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles and the Applied Arts Magazine book award.   In 2007, Burtynsky was the subject of the award-winning documentary Manufactured Landscapes, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Burtynsky’s new film, Watermark, which he made in conjunction with award-winning filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier, follows him as he shoots the images that form the Water series. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and continues to play around the world to acclaim. The photographs in the Water series were recently published in a book of the same name by the German publishing house Steidl. Edward Burtynsky’s Water photographs are on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery Singapore from March 7 to April 6, 2014, and at Sundaram Tagore Hong Kong from May 9 until June 21, 2014. 7

E D WA R D B U R T Y N S K Y

In 2007 Edward Burtynsky, a photographer renowned for his striking images of industrial landscapes, began what he describes as his most challenging project to date: an exploration of how we use water. The resulting body of work, which has yet to be completed, offers a thought-provoking view of the effects of agriculture, building and overconsumption on this most precious resource. Critic and art historian MichaĂŤl Amy spoke about the Water series with Burtynsky, during a rare break in his shooting schedule.

MICHAĂ&#x2039;L AMY What makes a Burtynsky? What are the ingredients of such a photograph? EDWARD BURTYNSKY My photographs are distillations. I initiate work on a project by experimenting, and try numerous approaches. I shoot from different angles, from varying distances, I use a variety of focal lengths, and then, I look at the work I have completed and see where the subject begins to transcend its banality and enters another, loftier placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a place that engages the imagination and fuels a sense of wonder. The work has to follow a set of rules in order to achieve that. The image must have its own purpose. I feel like a safecracker. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the numbers that open the safe, but I know that there are a few numbers that I must get, and in the right sequence. When I am at my location, at the right time of year and at the right time of day, with the right lens and film, and all the components I just mentioned align, well only then have I unlocked the safe. Although everything is digital nowadays, the essential thinking is no different. Every link in the chain has to be considered, for a weak link will undermine the whole. I pay close attention to all of these elements. I create an image that is made to be viewed hanging on a wall. The relationship between that print and the viewer is the same as the relationship between a theater stage and its audience. That is the place where I intersect with the public. The size of the print also bears a relationship to the viewer. When I shoot, I consider the scale of the photograph. What I photograph has to be embodied in the scale of the print.

M. A. What research went into the Water series? E. B. The Water series is the most challenging project I have embarked upon. In 2007, while in Australia, I noticed growing concern over their shrinking water supply. Australia has already lost a huge amount of farmland to drought. People were telling me about the drastic actions that were being taken in the cities to help preserve water. These problems fascinated me, but I had no idea how to approach these as a photographer, and then, shortly thereafter, I was invited by National Geographic to photograph the water infrastructure of California, as California has to obtain a significant percentage of the water it needs through negotiations with surrounding states. California’s population now stands at thirty-eight million people and will grow to fifty million by 2030, so you can see the scope of the problem. I started working with the National Geographic research team and examined how we both divert, and use, water. Seventy percent of the water people use goes toward agriculture, and of that amount, seventy percent goes toward food for cattle and pigs. I am interested in a very specific aspect about water. Water is about opportunity; it allows life to flourish. If water is not available, life will not flourish. It’s that simple. The redirection of water became the divining rod that led me to where I wanted to place my emphasis. Though I did not want to get too specific, agriculture became an extremely important aspect of the Water series. The only way you can grow food in California is to reactivate the soil with water. Aqueducts, the Colorado River and other river systems in the north have allowed California to become an important breadbasket for the United States. Then, I started looking at the High Plains, where the Dust Bowl occurred. What keeps that area going is the Ogallala Aquifer. This aquifer, the largest in North America, is being depleted to grow corn, cotton, wheat and alfalfa for the cattle industry. Much of the corn is used to produce ethanol to propel our vehicles, which, paired with the droughts, causes corn prices to rise. We are using vast amounts of water to burn fuel that powers machinery; it’s something most people don’t ever realize.

M. A. You produce politically charged work, while standing at a distance and often turning the abject into something both mysterious and beautiful. E. B. When I approach landscape, I look for the systems that are imposed upon it to benefit the human enterprise. The moment you begin to photograph human systems, you deal with politics. The work raises a lot of questions. The landscape is political, but it is also technological. Technology allows us to drill down into an aquifer, put a pivot well down that hole, and irrigate circumferences one mile in diameter, and then, control the irrigation by means of an iPod! I saw a chap sitting in a restaurant in Italy adjust the water-flow to one of the forty circles he was responsible for in Texas. To me, this is a perfect metaphor for human ingenuityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;until the water is gone. What happens then? An aquifer is a finite resource. Of course this work is political. Certain â&#x20AC;&#x153;powersâ&#x20AC;? control the flow of water, and make money from this. We are all dependent on water. We are all implicated in this game. There is a fixed amount of water on this planet. The question is, is it in the right place and in the right amount, or has it been spoiled to the point that it is no longer potable? This is the situation we face, and with drought increasingly coming into play, it is becoming more and more difficult to get the fresh water that is needed to grow food and keep all our urban centers going. If the droughts continue to expand, it only stands to reason that the world will see mass migrations.

M. A. What do you avoid in your photographs? The Water series is almost devoid of human beings or animal life. E. B. I stay away from the more traditional, documentary approach to landscape. I am not telling the story of the people behind these landscapes. I am not giving you the story of Father Smith and a day at his farm. I see this project as an integral part of the thirty-year body of work I have been buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a compendium of systematization and production that is allowing the entire human enterprise to expand to seven billion people. It takes big mines, and deforestation, and huge farms to be able to permit us to function at this number with this lifestyle. Farming is the single largest activity that we humans have engaged in. It is what we have done through agriculture that has changed our planet the most. I understood this thirty years ago and tried to photograph farming, but when standing on top of the roof of my car and photographing a field, I ended up with nothing more than a boring photograph of a field. The image did not have the kind of impact I wanted. It looked too benign and visually uneventful. It did not resonate in any interesting way. Now, I have the tools that allow me to approach landscape from a new angle, whether from a plane, or a helicopter, or a lift, to obtain viewpoints I think are necessary to bring the subject into more meaningful perspective and at the right scale. I am telling the story of our collective impact upon nature.

M. A. How important is ambiguity in your work? E. B. The Water series has allowed me to move more and more toward abstraction. It is often said that much of my work has a painterly quality to it, and the Water series has clearly tipped the scale in that direction. Strangely, some of these images no longer appear to register as photographs; they are not immediately recognizable as a real place in the world. Agriculture is our imprint upon the landscape, and it leaves a giant mark upon it; thus, I now shoot it from a height of 7,000 feet. Color is a very important part of my work as an artist. Color carries emotional resonances. I go after earth tones, reds, ochres, yellows. As an image-maker, I prefer being in that color field. I find it very hard to shoot in the summertime, as the color green renders in such a way as to evoke a more documentary sensibility. I also don’t care much for direct sunlight—that washes out color. I avoid blue skies. These things evoke a certain kind of landscape, a certain prosaic mood that I try to steer away from. M. A. In the Pivot Irrigation photographs shot in Texas, colossal circles are inscribed within colossal squares. These make me think of Leonardo’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man. In Texas, we see man seeking to impose himself upon nature; man aims to perfect nature in order to be able to better sustain himself. The circle is an image of perfection, alluding to the cosmos and to God. In the landscapes you photograph, man acts as God, and his interventions are almost cosmic in their implications. E. B. (Laughs) I agree with all of that! These images do appear almost cosmic—they show a kind of sublime geometry. They are constructed from multiple frames, in Photoshop, but I do not change their content. These pivot irrigation sites have been photographed before, but most artists have photographed them obliquely. I decided to look straight down to keep the perfect circle—as it would appear from the heavens, so to speak. In the more organic looking Monegros County

Dryland Farming photographs from Spain—a place where rain falls only in the winter, allowing for a single crop—I follow the contours of the landscape, viewed from above, and show how those biomorphically shaped fields closely follow the curvaceous rhythms of the terrain. They are uncanny, and might appear curiously fashioned, but just to be clear about how these pictures are made, I use Photoshop simply to balance and correct the colors, correct their density—all of the standard things one does in a digital dark room; nothing is fabricated. The things I shoot are actually there; I don’t invent them. M. A. The Water series is almost finished. What remains to be done? E. B. I need to go to India to photograph the world’s largest human gathering, by the river Ganges. On February 10th, thirty million people will come together in one place at one time, for the spiritual cleansing that Ganges water is believed to provide. To me, that ritual belongs to the waterfront aspect of my project. I will also shoot additional waterfronts, in places where high-density cities like Hong Kong are located by the water’s edge. Finally, I am also co-directing a documentary film focusing on water that we hope to release by September 2013 along with the rest of this project. —Toronto, October 2012 Michaël Amy is an art historian, critic, lecturer and curator with a BA from the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and an MA and PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. He is a Professor of Art History in the College of Imaging Arts & Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Burlington Magazine, Art in America, Art & Antiques, ARTnews, Apollo, Art on Paper, Art China and the New York Sun.

Mount Edziza Provincial Park #2, Northern British Columbia, Canada 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Mount Edziza Provincial Park #4, Northern British Columbia, Canada 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Mount Edziza Provincial Park #1, Northern British Columbia, Canada 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Mount Edziza Provincial Park #3, Northern British Columbia, Canada 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

All-American Canal, East of Calexico, California, USA 2009, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Alfalfa Farms, Imperial Valley, Southern California, USA 2009, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Owens Lake #1, California, USA 2009, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Shasta Lake Reservoir, Northern California, USA 2009, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Marine Aquaculture #1, Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province, China 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Marine Aquaculture #2, Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province, China 2012, Chromogenic color print, 33.3 x 80 inches/84.6 x 203.2 cm

Marine Aquaculture #3, Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province, China 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Marine Aquaculture #5, Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province, China 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Xiaolangdi Dam #4, Yellow River, Henan Province, China 2011, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Xiluodu Dam #2, Yangtze River, Yunnan Province, China 2011, Chromogenic color print, 64 x 48 inches/162.5 x 121.9 cm

Xiluodu Dam #5, Yangtze River, Yunnan Province, China 2011, Chromogenic color print, 44 x 96 inches/111.8 x 243.8 cm

Rice Terraces #1, Western Yunnan Province, China 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Colorado River Delta #1, Near San Felipe, Baja, Mexico 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Colorado River Delta #4, Sonora, Mexico 2012, Chromogenic color print, 64 x 48 inches/162.5 x 121.9 cm

Colorado River Delta #10, Abandoned Shrimp Farm, Sonora, Mexico 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Verona Walk, Naples, Florida, USA 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Station, Baja, Mexico 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Oil Spill #4, Oil Skimming Boat, Near Ground Zero, Gulf of Mexico 2010, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

Oil Spill #11, Nesting Grounds with Oil, Gulf of Mexico 2010, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Artemia Salterns, Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico 2012, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

Eystri-Ranga River, Iceland 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Dyralaekir River on Myrdalssandur, Iceland 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Markarflj贸t River #3, Erosion Control, Iceland 2012, Chromogenic color print, 38 x 68 inches/96.5 x 172.7 cm

Glacial Runoff #1, Skeidararsandur, Iceland 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Thjorsa River #1, Iceland 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Kumbh Mela #1, Haridwar, India 2010, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

Kumbh Mela #3, Haridwar, India 2013, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Kumbh Mela #4, Tent City, Allahabad, India 2013, Chromogenic color print, 26 x 96 inches/66 x 243.8 cm

Step-well #3, Chand Baori, Abhaneri, Rajasthan, India 2010, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

Container Port, Maasvlakte, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2011, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Polders, Grootschermer, The Netherlands 2011, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Alberta Oil Sands #14, Fort McMurray, Alberta 2007, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Pivot Irrigation #1, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA 2011, Chromogenic color print, 60 x 80 inches/152.4 x 203.2 cm

Pivot Irrigation #18, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA 2012, Chromogenic color print, 68 x 33.25 inches/172.7 x 84.4 cm

Pivot Irrigation #24, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 48 inches/121.9 x 121.9 cm

Pivot Irrigation #27, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA 2012, Chromogenic color print, 36 x 68 inches/91.4 x 172.7 cm

Pivot Irrigation/ Suburb, south of Yuma, Arizona 2011, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Benidorm #1, Spain 2010, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

Bay of Cรกdiz, Spain 2013, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Dryland Farming #12, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain 2010, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Dryland Farming #29, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain 2010, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Dryland Farming #24, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain 2010, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Greenhouses, Almira Peninsula, Spain 2010, Chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99 x 132 cm

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Salinas #2, Cadiz, Spain 2013, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

Salinas #3, Cadiz, Spain 2013, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

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Sewage Treatment Plant #1, London, United Kingdom 2010, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm

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C U R R I C U L U M V I TA E Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, 1955 Lives and works in Toronto

S E L ECT ED SO LO EX HIBITIONS 2014 A Terrible Beauty: Edward Burtynsky, Vancouver Art Gallery Edward Burtynsky: Water, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore 2013 Burtynsky: Water, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) Contemporary Art Center (CAC), New Orleans Edward Burtynsky: The Landscape That We Change, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Nature Transformed: Edward Burtynsky’s Vermont Quarry 2010 Photographs in Context, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont Burtynsky: Oil, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa Material Matters, UNB Art Centre, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton 2009 2012 Edward Burtynsky, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont Burtynsky: Oil, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, Virginia Burtynsky: Oil, C/O Berlin, Berlin Nature Transformed: Edward Burtynsky’s Vermont Quarry Photographs in Context, Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire Burtynsky: Oil, The Photographer’s Gallery, London Burtynsky: Oil, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, Virginia Burtynsky: Oil, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno Edward Burtynsky: The Industrial Sublime, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville Edward Burtynsky: The Industrial Sublime, University of Wyoming Art 2008 Museum, Laramie, Wyoming Monegros - Dryland Farming, Flowers Cork Street, London Edward Burtynsky: Shipbreaking, South Seaport Museum, New York 2007 Edward Burtynsky: Encounters, Glenbow Museum, Calgary 2011 Monegros - Dryland Farming, Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York Edward Burtynsky, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York Burtynsky: Oil, McCord Museum, Montréal Edward Burtynsky: L’home I La Terra, Llums I Ombres, Centre d’Art

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Tecla Sala, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona Edward Burtynsky: The Industrial Sublime, (touring exhibition) Shaw Gallery, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah Edward Burtynsky: El hombre y la tierra. Luces y sombras, Sala Municipal de Exposiciones de San Benito, Valladolid, Spain Burtynsky: Oil, Ryerson University in association with the Institute for Contemporary Culture, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Australian Minescapes, National Museum of Australia, Canberra Burtynsky: Oil, Altana Kulturstiftung, Bad Homburg, Germany Burtynsky: Oil, Ryerson Image Arts Gallery, Toronto Burtynsky: Oil, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta Burtynsky: Oil, Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm Burtynsky: Oil, Museum for Film and Photography, Bradford, U.K. Australian Minescapes, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, Queensland Burtynsky: Oil, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John’s, Newfoundland Australian Minescapes, Sovereign Hill Gold Museum, Ballarat, Victoria Australian Minescapes, Western Australian Museum, Geraldton, Western Australia Burtynsky: Oil, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam Burtynsky: Oil, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Australian Minescapes, Australian Centre for Photography, Melbourne Manufactured Landscapes, Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts Edward Burtynsky: Quarries, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Christ Church University, Canterbury Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta Edward Burtynsky: Uneasy Beauty, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, British Columbia Burtynsky Australian Mines, Flowers East Gallery, London Material World, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Australian Minescapes, Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Western Australia In Pursuit of Progress, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada Manufactured Landscapes, Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands China Works, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, San Sebastián, Spain Burtynsky Photographs (major survey exhibition), Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands

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Edward Burtynsky: Photographs, Canadian Cultural Institute, Paris Edward Burtynsky: The China Series (touring exhibition), curated by David Brown, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA): — Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina — Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida — Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, British Columbia — Tufts University Art Gallery, Aidekman Arts Center, Medford, Massachusetts — Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania — The Art Museum, University of Oregon, Eugene — Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine Edward Burtynsky: China, FotoFo, Month of Photography, Palace of Art, Bratislava, Slovakia Fabryka Krajobrazu: Manufactured Landscapes, Yours Gallery, Warsaw PhotoEspana, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid Manufactured Landscapes (includes 24 new China images), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Manufactured Landscapes, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California Manufactured Landscapes, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Art, Stanford University, California Entropia, Fundacion Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, Bilbao, Spain Manufactured Landscapes, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Manufactured Landscapes, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Québec Edward Burtynsky: Mid-Career Retrospective, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa: — Finnish Museum of Photography at Cable Factory, Helsinki — The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto — The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York — The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California — Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, California Breaking Ground—Produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography Exhibition tour: — Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario — Toronto Photographers Workshop, Toronto — Floating Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada — Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta

SE L ECTE D G R O UP EXH I B IT I ON S 2014 Blue: Matter, Mood, and Melancholy, 21c Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio 2013 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London Format, International Photography Festival, Derby, U.K. Big Pictures, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth Climate of Uncertainty, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago Picturing the Sublime, The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. 2012 No Strangers: Ancient Wisdom in a Modern World, Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles Down to Earth: Herblock and Photographers Observe the Environment, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island Portfolio: Artists Work in Series, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Iowa Subverted, Ivory Press, Madrid 2011 Infinite Balance, Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), San Diego Songs of the Future: Canadian Industrial Photographs, 1858 to Today, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto To The Ends of the Earth, Adamson Gallery, Washington, D.C. The Ocean Reglitterized, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, New York LOOK11 Liverpool International Photography Festival, Liverpool Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London Depiction, Confederation Art Centre, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island The Altered Landscape: Photographs of a Changing Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Human Kind - Ecological Circuits, Wilhelm Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany Car Fetish. I drive, therefore I am., Museum Tinguely, Basel Embarrassment of Riches: Picturing Global Wealth, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland The Kasper Collection: Mannerism and Modernism, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York

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Weltbilder 4, Helmhaus, Zurich Embarrassment of Riches: Picturing Global Wealth, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Developed and Undeveloped: Photographic Landscapes, de Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco Energy = Labour, Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, Berlin In Light: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego Bearing Witness: Works from the Collection, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia In Focus: Photography from the Permanent Collection, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine Water: National Geographic, Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles Thanks for Being With Us: Contemporary Art from the Douglas Nielsen Collection, Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona Vanishing Landscapes/Verschwindende Landschaften, Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, Salzburg In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes Before the Digital Age, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Earth: Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London Les Visages de l’industrie, Musée des beaux-arts, Le Locle, Switzerland Una fábrica, Una Máqina Un Cuerpo, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City Nature Nation, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern Emotion, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord Between Nature and Society, Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona Evolving Eden, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska Prix Pictet 2008 Shortlisted Artists Exhibition, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands La Grande Image: Histoire de la Photographie Panoramique de 1839 à nos jours, Pavillon Populaire, Montpellier Scale Matters: Photographs from the Joseph and Charlotte Lichtenberg Collection, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Modern Photographs: The Machine, the Body and the City—Gifts from the Charles Cowles Collection, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate:

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2001

— National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario — Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa Moving Walls, Open Society Institute, Washington, D.C. Eastern Standard: Western Artists in China, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts Ingenuity, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels Relics and Ruins, Instituto Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and SESC Paulista, Sao Paulo China Works, Center Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastián, Spain International Biennial of Photography and Visual Arts, Liège Utopian Mirage: Social Metaphors in Contemporary Photography and Film, Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York A History of Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Imaging a Shattering Earth, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia Ingenuity, Gulbekian Foundation, Lisbon C on Cities, Venice Biennale, Pavilion Padiglione Italia, Giardini della Biennale, Venice The photographic document: Aspects & Transformations, Photography Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece Made in China, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Modern Times: Work, Machinery and Automation in the Arts of 1900, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate, Oakland University, Rochester, Minnesota Disaster Topographics, Toronto Photographer’s Workshop, Toronto Subjective Distance, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Hot Mush and Cold North, The Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario Industry and Entropy, Freedman Gallery, Albright College Center for the Arts, Reading, Pennsylvania (catalog) Altered Landscape: The Carol Franc Buck Collection, Norsk Museum for Fotografi-Preus Fotomuseum, Horten, Norway, and Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada New Acquisitions: New Work / New Directions3 / Contemporary Selections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California Altered States: Landscape Transformation in the Wake of Progress, University Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California Curator’s Forum: Collecting Contemporary Art, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Detourism, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago

AWARDS AND HONORS Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, Watermark, Toronto Film Critics Association Honorary Degree, Doctor of Arts, Middlebury College, Vermont Honorary Doctoral Degree, University of British Columbia Tiffany Mark Award National Magazine Awards, Gold Prize for Conceptual Photography, Toronto MOCCA Award in Contemporary Art Honorary Degree: Doctor of Laws, Mt. Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, Deutscher Fotobuchpreis, Silver Award for Burtynsky: Oil, Stuttgart, Germany Burtynsky: Oil, Kraszna-Krausz Book Award, U.K. Prix Pictet, London, nomination and short-listed Planet in Focus Media/Industry Eco-Hero Award Canadian Environment Awards: Ideas for Life Prix Pictet, London, U.K., nomination and short-listed Ideas for Life Award, Canadian Environment Awards Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts, Achievement Award ICP Infinity Award, Art category, International Center of Photography, New York Deutscher Fotobuchpreis, for Burtynsky: Quarries, Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, Germany 2007 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Honorary Degree, Doctor of Fine Arts in Photography Study, Ryerson University, Toronto Honorary Degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, Montserrat College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts 2006 Officer of the Order of Canada Flying Elephants Foundation Fellowship 2004 TED Prize (inaugural), Monterey, California The Rencontres d’Arles Outreach Award, Arles, France 2003 Roloff Beny Book Award, Toronto, Ontario Applied Arts Magazine, Photographic Book Award Governor General of Canada Delegate, Circumpolar State Visit to Finland and Iceland Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Academician’s Honours National Magazine Awards Foundation, Photojournalism Silver Award 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008

SE L ECTE D L ECTUR ES International Center of Photography McMichael Canadian Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario The Walrus Foundation, Toronto Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario Princeton Environmental Institute, Environmental Humanities in a Changing World Conference, Princeton, New Jersey Conversations from the Toronto Art World, Canadian Art Foundation, University of Toronto Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts: The High Performance Rodeo, Alberta Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire Royal College of Art, London DOT (Design Our Tomorrow) Conference, Toronto Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York The Long Now Foundation, San Francisco Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dubai Society for Photographic Education Conference, Denver, Colorado Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Ryerson University, Toronto Montserrat College, Boston, Massachusetts Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, the Netherlands University of Toronto National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. ORACLE Conference, Chicago TED Conference, Monterey, California Parsons Lecture, Parsons New School for Design, New York International Center of Photography, New York Finnish Museum of Photography at Cable Factory, Helsinki Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Kodak Lecture Series, Ryerson Polytechnical University, Toronto

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S E L ECT ED P U BLI C COLLECTIONS Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland Bibliothèque National, Paris Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Mane Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio Fondation Arts et Culture, Jouxtens-Mezery, Switzerland Gallery Stratford, Stratford, Ontario George Eastman House, Rochester, New York Gemeentemuseum Helmonds, the Netherlands Glenbow Museum, Calgary Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan Haggerty Museum, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California Kaspar Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montréal Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. London Museum, London, Ontario Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Québec Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, Québec

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Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California Museum of Modern Art, New York Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts National Archives of Canada, Ottawa National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Nevada Museum of Art, Reno Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick Presentation House, Vancouver, British Columbia Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid Ryerson Polytechnic University/School of Image Arts, Toronto San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California San José Museum of Art, San José, California Scottsdale Museum of Contempoary Art, Linhart Collection, Arizona Seattle Art Museum, Washington Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas Saint Louis Museum of Art, Missouri Thessaloniki Museum of Art, Thessaloniki, Greece Tom Thompson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City Victoria and Albert Museum, London Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut‎ Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Wilson Centre for Photography, London Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba

SEL ECT ED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Ackerman & Co., Atlanta, Georgia Air Canada, Montréal Allied, Toronto Arrow Hedge, Toronto AstraZeneca Arrow Hedge, Toronto Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto Beamscope Bennett Jones Beutal, Goodman, Toronto Blackburn Group, London, Canada Blaney, McMurtry, Stappells, Toronto BMO, Toronto Boston Red Sox, Boston, Massachusetts CB Richard, Toronto Ciba-Geigy Canada Ltd., Toronto CI Funds Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce/Wood Gundy Cafritz Interests, Washington, D.C. Charles Schwab & Co. Chase Bank, New York Claridge Incorporated Delaney Capital Devon Petroleum, Calgary Dow Jones, New York Elton John Foundation, London Encana Resources, Calgary Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto Fidelity Investments Foreign Affairs Canada Goldman Sachs Granite Club, Toronto Grosvenor Capital Management, Chicago Hunt Oil Company, Calgary, Alberta INCO, Head Office, Toronto J.P. Morgan Bank

Kelly Company, New York Lax, O’Sullivan, Cronk Lenczner, Slaught, Royce, Smith, Griffen, Toronto Likrilyn Capital, Toronto London Life, London, Ontario LW Capital, Toronto Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington Morris, Rose, Ledgett, Toronto McCarthy, Tetrault McMillan, Binch National Bank, Montréal Novell, Incorporated OMERS, Toronto ONEX, New York Ontario Mining Association, Toronto Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Toronto Ove Arup & Partners International, London The Parnassus Foundation, New York Phillip Morris Corporation, New York Pictet & Cie, Geneva Power Corporation, Montréal Price Waterhouse Refco Group, Ltd. Royal Bank Schulich School of Business Sunlife of Canada Swiss Bank Swiss Re Life and Health TD Bank, Toronto Teleglobe Canada, Montréal Templeton Management Tory, Tory, Deslauriers & Binnington TransAlta, Corporation, Calgary Tremblanc Capitol, New York Vertical Screen Inc., Warminster, Pennsylvania Wood Gundy

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S U N D A R A M TA G O R E G A L L E R I E S new york new york hong kong singapore

547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 212 677 4520 fax 212 677 4521 • gallery@sundaramtagore.com 1100 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 • tel 212 288 2889 57-59 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong • tel 852 2581 9678 fax 852 2581 9673 • hongkong@sundaramtagore.com 01-05 Gillman Barracks, 5 Lock Road, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 • singapore@sundaramtagore.com

President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Hong Kong: Faina Derman Designer: Russell Whitehead www.sundaramtagore.com Text © 2014 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Images © 2014 Edward Burtynsky

Art consultants: Teresa Kelley Bonnie B. Lee Sarah Miller Deborah Moreau Benjamin Rosenblatt Raj Sen Melanie Taylor

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Cover: Colorado River Delta #1, Near San Felipe, Baja, Mexico, 2012, Chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/121.9 x 162.5 cm