Edward Burtynsky, Canadian
Oil Spill #10, Oil Slick, Gulf of Mexico, 2010
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer whose work demonstrates how industry and the human population is transforming nature. His photographs highlight how humans have worked the earth for their own advantage, manipulating its resources and destroying it in the process. Burtynsky’s print, Oil Spill #10, Oil Slick, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010, is an aerial photograph that embodies the deadly scale of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Burtynsky includes the sky in his composition, potentially implying how the world continued on while the worst oil spill in history occurred. The dark oily ribbons streaked across the seascape for miles, overpowering and enveloping the clear water while leaving behind a trail of murky water. Burtynsky arranges the shot so the oil ridden water is more than half of the composition, displaying how fossil fuels are a source of energy and destruction. Label by Elsa Rall