When looking at photographs taken by Edward Burtynsky, it is easy to see that they tell an effective story. He has travelled the world taking photos of industries. Telling stories of industries and the workers inside them. His photos are very powerful and give the viewer something to think about.
Edward Burtynsky’s photos represent truth. He doesn’t make the photo look beautiful. For example, in the photographs of the factory workers in China, he doesn’t ask them to smile; he wants to capture the truth. Another example is his work on homesteads. He photographs homes that the average person would live in and not a large mansion on scenic hillside. By showing the truth and photos of real life experiences he is not trying to fool the viewer. He wants them to see the truth so he captures the audience by telling an honest story.
Burtynsky tells his stories through a series of photos. This can be seen in his work titled ‘Detroit’. The photos show that the car manufacturing business is suffering. Manufacturing plants are photographed with broken windows and are destroyed because they are left vacant. The interior of the Ford plant assembly line seems quiet and run down. People are obviously losing their jobs. The story he is trying to tell is that life is difficult for some people in this city. People viewing the photos could easily feel sadness in their hearts.
One story that Burtynsky told through photos was made into a film called, ‘Manufactured Landscapes’. This film shows his photos of China. Burtynsky goes across the country photographing the importance of the Industrial Revolution. He takes photos of quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, and dams. In each of these series his photos tell a story of what life is like in China. For example, the photos of recycling yards show the pile up of scrap metal from other countries that are shipped to China. The large piles of scrap metal show that many people in China make a living by collecting and recycling the things that we waste. They turn our waste into a profit. Another story that is told in the film through his photos is about the factory workers in China. The workers are dressed the same, standing in rows for as far as the eye can see. The image that is portrayed is that they are all like minions working for the government. People looking at these photos in the film may feel sorry for these workers when actually they may consider themselves lucky for having a job in a very overpopulated country. Burtynsky’s photos in the film tell many stories about the way of life in China and tells the viewer how they live.
A talented photographer like Edward Burtynsky tells stories through his photographs. The photos he takes are graphic and truthful. He is not trying to fool anyone through the photos he takes. His storytelling through photos is successful because he captures honest, real life images.
I think that this picture is telling a story about two things. These two things are about how much people are recycling. This is a good thing for the environment because not all of the recyclables are going into the garbage dumps and not polluting the earth. The other thing that this photo telling is that we are sending our junk to china because they will leave it on the streets and take care of it for very little money. This photograph is effective because it captures the eye of the audience and they might see this and say that, that’s were our junk goes and feel bad. Therefore people may think twice a bout what they do with their recyclables.
Link to picture
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/recycle-one-thing-cans.jpg&imgrefurl=http://science.howstuffworks.com/recycle-one-thing1.htm&usg=__QCWOX3r-068nAxw9L9ZftoT462I=&h=404&w=400&sz=30&hl=en&start=0&sig2=eUaFJ-U_xUGT6CTsusTYDQ&zoom=1&tbnid=Df6KzH7ZETnp0M:&tbnh=142&tbnw=147&ei=p96XTPvcCIeglAeGqtTRBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drecyclable%2Bcans%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D600%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=246&oei=p96XTPvcCIeglAeGqtTRBQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0&tx=76&ty=13
