Extraction

Over the last forty years, Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky has photographed landscapes all over the world, documenting how human systems and industry are reshaping our planet. Through photographs of urbanisation, deforestation, and mining extractions, Burtynsky’s images are simultaneously sublime and terrifying, chronicling the insatiable demand for finite resources from a rapidly accelerating population.

In 2022, Burtynsky photographed Ravensworth Mine in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, an open cut mine producing coal for export. Presented through ten large-format photographs, these aerial images show the scale of active industry and seduce the viewer via sensual patterns and topography. The photographs provide vantages for discussion of the future of the environment. Whether the landscapes are seen as an environmental disaster or human progress, these works bear witness to the changing planet.