Salt Pans by Edward Burtynsky

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Over the past 40 years Burtynsky has compellingly explored the shocking variety and scale of industrialised landscapes, from oil refineries to quarries, from aquaculture to salt extraction.

Consisting of 31 aerial photos of the salt pans in the Little Rann of Kutch, India, the project is the result of months of intricate negotiations and preparations. These striking geometric images, taken in an intense ten-day period during which Burtynsky photographed from a helicopter, present the pans, wells and vehicle tracks as abstract, painterly patterns: subtly colored rectangles crossed by grids of gestural lines. And yet the reality behind the ironic beauty of Burtynsky’s pictures is a harsh one. Each year 100,000 poorly paid Agariya workers toil in the pans, extracting over a million tons of salt from the floodwaters of the nearby Arabian Sea.

Hardcover

Number of pages: 60

Dimensions: 29.21 cm x 37 cm

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Description

Edward Burtynsky was born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. Early exposure to the General Motors plant and watching ships go by in the Welland Canal in Burtynsky’s hometown helped capture his imagination for the scale of human creation, and to formulate the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the collective impact we as a species are having on the surface of the planet — an inspection of the human systems we’ve imposed onto natural landscapes.

He is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet. Burtynsky’s photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world,