Well I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one, but I couldn't help but post about this amazing exhibit anyway. I got wind that the photographs of Edward Burtynsky were on display by reading Gothamist, but realized that yesterday was the last day of the show and so I'd have to hurry. Well, hurry I did. I hustled over to the Brooklyn Art Museum, braving freezing temperatures to catch the fleeting moments of the show dedicated to this photographer. Why put forth so much effort? Well, you wouldn't ask that if you could have seen the work.

Burtynsky's photos are kind of a mixture of Andreas Gursky's epic large format, highly detailed and richly colorful photographs and the soulful, resonant, wonderfully composed photos of Sebastao Salgado. He is probably NOT up to par with either of these two, but he draws from them both. His photos show places that have been affected by man, places like quarries and mines and the ship-breaking yards of Bangladesh (also shot exquisitely by Salgado).

I confess I was very much pulled into his work because I would like to launch a project of my own to document the wrecked places on earth, and to do so in the panoramic format. A few shots I have done around India and, well, Brooklyn, provide an example of how well, I think the panoramaic format would lend itself to doing this.

Anyhow, yesterday was the last day of the Edward Burtynsky exhibit, but I wanted to bring him, as a person and photographer, to your attention in case you have never heard of him.

Filed under: Bangladesh