Burtynsky Photography

788 Words2 Pages

1. Burtynsky’s work was truly captivating to me. I liked how in his work he really focuses in on the details to capture the story around the subject he chose. In his work, I also enjoy how right away I get this visual connection and, it’s engaging because it makes me wonder and question his intentions of what he decided to photograph. When I immerse myself into his work, it fascinates me. It almost gives me a pleasant feeling to look at his work because it’s beautiful to me but, then again I try to make of why he decided to capture this. It’s almost like I’m seeing a behind the scenes of what goes on in nature and by looking at this other side, I do lament to what this world has come and, how us humans have changed things since the beginning …show more content…

One of Burtynsky’s projects that made an impression on me was his project about water. Water is a resource that is vital to our existence yet sometimes we can take it for granted. The iconography of his showcase leaves a lasting impression because of how deep the meaning is. In this project, Burtynsky captures this resource in a way that makes us see this source on our planet in new ways. The form in his photographic works is created by capturing a vast landscape and, within that landscape we are able to see the content depicted well. We are able to see how water is misused and/or how humans have redesigned Earth to fit our needs for water. Out of all Burtynsky’s photographs in water, Benidorm #1 was interesting to me. The subject matter is a beach. The element line defines the border between the sandy land and the ocean. This helps portray the visual experience of how a beach is. I felt very draw to this photograph because it is so rich in color and I feel like it helps brings this work to life. I thought the two principles unity and variety were portrayed well in this work. Unity is presented by the sand and the ocean. Both make up a whole being the beach. The variety is depicted by the many people found in the beach and, the different array of umbrellas. Both the elements and principles I described, were executed well in my opinion. I believe Burtynsky decided to include the beach into his gallery to show that water is a pleasure but going into deeper thought, I …show more content…

Burtynsky’s work, Highway #1, from his oil gallery, has a lot going on. I would say one of the elements that stand out the most is texture. By observing this photograph, I have an idea of the texture because of the visual experience I am immersed in. Another element depicted well is movement. As seen in the photo, the looping highway takes many turns and, the cars are going in various directions of the highway. The principle balance is portrayed well. It is not symmetrical, but is asymmetrical. If this photo were to halve, both sides would be similar except that the left side seems to be visually heavier. The principle rhythm is presented here by the lines and the directions they are moving in. Also the cars contribute to this principle because they are in constant motion. Moving on to another photograph, Densified Oil Filters #1, depicts texture as rough because of the visual sharp edges from the appliances. The element color is shown stronger in areas than in others. I feel like that helps to bring out the visual experience of this recycling yard. The appliances shown were once working, and what I mean that color is shown stronger than in other areas is that now that they’re not in use, they have a dull gray color to them but still with some of the surviving colors. The principle variety is shown by the various objects depicted of different sizes. In this photograph, there is a lot of detail going on and I feel like that’s where the principle proportion comes in. The

Open Document