By Anqi Shen
University Affairs
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is donating a portion of his work, spanning nearly five decades of his career, to Ryerson University. Some of his early images, selected by Mr. Burtynsky himself, are now featured in a virtual public gallery through the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), while prints and materials from later years are in the process of being curated.
The 65-year-old photographer is internationally renowned for his large-scale landscapes depicting the impact of human industry on nature and the effects of climate change. While the collection at the RIC includes images that embody his iconic style, it also considers some of his earlier works that had a personal dimension, says the RIC’s director, Paul Roth.
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Read MoreOn December 2, recent Ryerson graduate Cole LeGree chats with Ismaila and reflects on the donation of Burtynsky’s early archives to the Ryerson Image Centre.
Read MoreBy Kate Taylor
The Globe & Mail
Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky is donating his archives to his old school, including even his student assignments. The Ryerson Image Centre announced Tuesday that the celebrated photographer is making a multiyear gift to the institution where he began his career in the 1970s, studying at the School of Image Arts at what is now Ryerson University. The gift will be made in several chronological parcels. The first part features 142 images made between 1976 and 1989, most not represented in public collections. These include early photographs of landscapes and city scenes submitted to his Ryerson photography instructors before Burtynsky achieved renown as a photographer of large-scale industrial landscapes. Later photographs of architecture and manufacturing include this image Holland Marsh, Ontario from the series Packing.
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Read MoreNovember 24, 2020, Toronto — The Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) is proud to announce a multi-year donation of photographs by celebrated Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose iconic images have brought worldwide attention to the impacts of human industry on the natural landscape. The first installment of this gift comprises 142 photographs from the artist’s early career, a selection of which have been made public in a virtual gallery on the RIC’s website. Subsequent annual gifts will make the Toronto-based photography centre the most important global repository for the study of Burtynsky’s oeuvre.
Edward Burtynsky began his career in the late 1970s at the School of Image Arts of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University). "It was important to me that my life’s work be housed in a Canadian institution, and it felt like a fitting 'homecoming' to entrust these works to the same place where I first developed as a photographer,” Burtynsky says. “The Ryerson Image Centre has become one of the leading museums in the world for photo historical research and has a growing collection of artist archives. I realized that there was no place I would rather have my work preserved and studied.”
Read the full press release here.
Read MoreBy Sue Carter
Toronto Star
Edward Burtynsky gifting his archives to the Ryerson Image Centre marks a circular journey for one of the world’s most esteemed contemporary photographers.
The downtown university has just announced the first instalment of his multi-year donation to its photographic gallery and research facility. It features 142 photos from Burtynsky’s early career, created between 1976 and 1989. Subsequent annual donations, to span three to five years, will add more chronological works from his five-plus decades of visually documenting how so-called human progress and industrial spread have environmentally devastated the planet.
As a young student from nearby suburban St. Catharines, Burtynsky was exposed to groundbreaking ideas at the School of Image Arts at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Along with art classes, Burtynsky studied sociology, psychology and film. He felt encouraged to take risks with his photography, thanks to energized faculty members such as Marta Braun, whom he credits with teaching him art history.
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