Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky & Louis Helbig

Visualizing Ideologies is a project where I want to explore ecology and the anthropocene within photography. My photography historically has been largely landscape and travel photography. I have a huge passion for conservation as well as expressing how beautiful the world can be. However this project would be a different turn, I have a variety of ideas that I will discuss on the following page. 

Edward Burtynsky and Louis Helbig are the first photographers that have drastically caught me eye. Their work of photographing the devastating impact humans have on the planet is both sublime yet guilt tripping. I say this because the aerial view makes the earth look aesthetically pleasing in a photograph. However I feel it guilt trips the viewer because by thinking they are beautiful photographs, automatically assumes that the subject is something beautiful. However the context and the subjects are not beautiful. They are devastating.

I feel that the aerial view brings a new perspective on how we view earth. By showing so much information and large scale land in single photographs, it makes me realize how devastating the impact humans have on earth.