Edward Burtynsky is one of Canada’s most internationally renowned photographers.
For nearly a decade (1999-2008) Burtynsky focused on his "Oil" series which depicted the production and consequences of the global oil market in four countries: China, USA, Canada and Azerbaijan. He produced images of oil fields, refineries, automobiles, motorways, disposal and recycling areas, transportation, oil sands, and abandoned oil fields.
This image of the Alberta Oil Sands is one of the best-known works from Burtynsky’s Oil series. Rendered from an improbable vantage point and in strange, luminous hues, the image offers stunning precision and commanding clarity.
"Alberta Oil Sands" perfectly links globalization, oil, and the industrial sublime. Shot from the air around Fort McMurray, the vast, alien vistas—steam plants, tailing ponds, and ploughed earth stretching to a smoggy horizon—confront viewers with the reality of human impact.
Their monumental scale and formal beauty belie the devastation they depict. Here, the romantic sublime is inverted: the awe we feel stems not from nature’s immensity but from our own destructive power, as humanity appears less as nature’s subject than as its unrelenting deity.
Despite the commentary on society and environmental capitalization, the image is incredibly beautiful with its sober palette, etherial reflections, and near-total abstraction.
Burtynsky's work is represented in over 50 museum collections including The National Gallery of Canada, The Guggenheim, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and Bibliothèque National, Paris to mention a few.
Questions about this piece? Contact us, call +1.416.704.1720, or visit our Toronto gallery.
"Alberta Oil Sands #10, Fort McMurray, Alberta, 2007"
39 Megapixel Digital Capture
Printed in 2009: Digital Chromogenic Color Print
Signed by the artist on label, verso
39”W 49H” (image)
41”W 51”H (framed)
Framed with museum glass
Very good condition
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