photo: © Edward Burtynsky, 2021 Sony World Photography Awards – Phosphor Tailings Pond #4, Near Lakeland, Florida, USA, 2012
The World Photography Organisation (WPO) announced that photographer Edward Burtynsky had been named the recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Photography. Burtynsky is widely regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers and is best known for his sweeping images of industrial landscapes and the broader environmental crisis.
More than a dozen large-scale photographs were presented as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 exhibition at Somerset House in London from April 15 through May 2, 2022.
Selected by the artist, the presentation highlighted key works and themes from his forty-year career. These included epic images from Anthropocene (2018). Taking its title from the proposed name for our current geological epoch, the series examines human activity and its profound impact on the Earth and its systems.
His imagery explores the collective impact that we, as a species, have on the planet’s surface. In striking images of vast, human-altered landscapes Burtynsky reveals the awe-inspiring scale of infrastructure and destruction driven by systems of capitalism and consumption.
Mostly photographed from a bird’s-eye view, vistas of scarred mountain ranges, depleted bodies of water, quarries, mines, farmland, and sprawling urban development are distilled into painterly abstractions of color and form.
Both wondrous and frightening, Burtynsky’s meticulously constructed compositions draw viewers in with their aesthetic beauty and hold their attention as unsettling details emerge and reveal the scale of the devastation depicted.
Commenting on his work and accepting the award, Edward Burtynsky said: “I am very excited to receive this award. My work over the past forty years has given me the privilege of seeing the world, understanding the issues we face, and witnessing it all with my camera.”
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography award honors an individual or group that has had a significant impact on the medium of photography.
Previous recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award include Mary Ellen Mark, William Klein, Eve Arnold, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, and, most recently, Martin Parr, Candida Höfer, Nadav Kander, Gerhard Steidl, and Graciela Iturbide.
More information: www.worldphoto.org.
