EDWARD BURTYNSKY – WATER
2013-10-21The exhibition presents a selection of photographs from a much larger body of work that, along with the film Watermark and the Burtynsky – Water book (Steidl), are a result of Edward Burtynsky’s largest project to date, documenting the scale and impact of manufacturing and consumption on the world’s water supplies. Burtynsky chronicles the various roles that water plays in modern life – as a source of healthy ecosystems and energy, as a key element in cultural and religious rituals and as a rapidly depleting resource. The photographs, both beautiful and haunting, create a compelling global portrait that illustrates humanity’s past, present and future relationship with the natural world.
Shooting in ten different countries for the Water project, Burtynsky’s subjects include dry-land farming in Spain, pivot irrigation sites in Texas, and the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In these instances, Burtynsky took to the air using conventional helicopters, remote controlled helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft, to bring the scale of the human imprint into a more meaningful perspective. He also traveled to photograph millions of people bathing in the cleansing power of the sacred Ganges River in India; mega-dam construction on the upper Yangtze and the once-per-year silt release on the Yellow River in China, and the precious virgin watersheds of British Columbia and the dry beds of the Colorado River Delta.
Exhibition runs through to November 23rd, 2013
Galerie Stefan Röpke
St. Apern-Strasse 17-21
50667 Cologne
Germany
