Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements

Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Publication Date: 2016
Print Length: 202 pages

Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955) is one of a generation of photographers who seek to portray the visible outcomes of a globalized economy and humankind's impact on environments around the world. He has achieved global recognition with his large-scale photographs and project-based monographs, such as Quarries, Oil, and Water, all of which have resulted in popular touring exhibitions and, in the case of Water, a feature-length documentary film entitled Watermark. However, while Burtynsky's global standing is without question, no comprehensive retrospective of his career to date exists.
Edited and curated by William A. Ewing, Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements provides an overview of Burtynsky's work across four decades, including 140 photographs of both iconic and previously unpublished images. It conceives of Burtynsky's oeuvre as five free-flowing sections that provide a sense of both his visual language and his exploration of the dilemmas at the heart of our globalized world. Each of the five sections is interleaved with a selection of texts from previous publications and articles on Burtynsky that work in concert with the photographs to provide a complete understanding of Burtynsky's view of the world.

Selected Books by This Photographer

Edward Burtynsky: Anthropocene

Jun 2026 - Steidl

Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal & Nicholas de Pencier


Edward Burtynsky: Water

Jun 2026 - Steidl

Edward Burtynsky


Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration

Dec 2025 - Steidl

Edward Burtynsky


Edward Burtynsky: African Studies

2023 - Steidl

Edward Burtynsky, Deborah Bräutigam, Raffi Khatchadourian, Christopher Littlewood, Marc Mayer, Azu Nwagbogu


Nature Transformed

2012 - Hood Museum of art

Edward Burtynsky


Quarries

2009 - Steidl

Edward Burtynsky


Manufactured Landscapes

2003 - Yale University Press

Edward Burtynsky

 

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Harry Gruyaert: New York

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Letizia Battaglia, Walter Guadagnini

 

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