No stranger to the pages of SHFT, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky returns with what may be his most ambitious project to date. The result of over five years of work, Water investigates humanity’s complex relationship with the world’s most vital natural resource. The project includes a series of photo exhibitions, a book, and a film.
Shot in ten different countries, Water covers a wide variety of subjects that range from pivot irrigation sites in the Southwestern US and virgin watersheds in British Columbia to dry-land farming in Spain and the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
From the artist’s statement:
“While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding, and very thirsty civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways. In this new and powerful role over the planet, we are also capable of engineering our own demise. My hope is that these pictures will stimulate a process of thinking about something essential to our survival; something we often take for granted—until it’s gone.”
Photos, left to right:
1. Rice Terraces #2, Western Yunnan Province, China, 2012
2. Pivot Irrigation / Suburb, South of Yuma, Arizona, 2011
3. Colorado River Delta #8, Salinas, Baja, Mexico, 2012
4. Greenhouses, Almira Peninsula, Spain, 2010
5. Xiaolangdi Dam #1, Yellow River, Henan Province, China, 2011
6. Dryland Farming #2, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010
7. Thjorsá River #1, Iceland, 2012