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Edward Burtynsky: Anthropocene


Weinstein Hammons Gallery
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Opening reception with the artist on October 11 from 6:00-8:00pm

The Holocene epoch started 11,700 years ago as the glaciers of the last ice age receded. Geologists and other scientists from the Anthropocene Working Group believe that we have left the Holocene and entered a new epoch termed the Anthropocene.

I have come to think of my preoccupation with the Anthropocene — the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet — as a conceptual extension of my first and most fundamental interests as a photographer. I have always been concerned to show how we affect the Earth in a big way. To this end, I seek out and photograph large- scale systems that leave lasting marks. At the heart of my challenge has been the pursuit of vantage points that best enable me to picture the relationship of these systems to the land.” — Edward Burtynsky

Anthropocene is an ambitious new body of work by world-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky. For this project, Burtynsky traveled to six continents over the course of 4 years. He photographed the Uralkali potash mines in Berezniki, Russia, which are in darkness 1000 feet underground, using LED lighting and long exposure times; he completed several 60 foot dives o the Indonesian Island of Komodo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to capture one of the last thriving coral reefs on the planet; and he aerially photographed the mountains of plastic in Kenya’s Dandora Landfill site and the phosphor mining ponds in Florida.

Earlier Event: October 11
Edward Burtynsky: Anthropocene