Wan Zhou #2, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, 2002
Edward Burtynsky, Wan Zhou #2, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, 2002, chromogenic colour print on paper, 68.6 x 86.4 (image/sheet).
The strong diagonal composition of Wan Zhou #2, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, reflects both the steep terrain of the Yangtze River valley and the point of the depicted destruction: this site is being prepared for submersion in advance of a massive hydroelectric project. The Three Gorges Dam, built along the fabled Yangtze—the longest river in Asia and the cradle of Chinese civilization—is the most ambitious and controversial dam in Chinese history. Its construction displaced around 1.2 million people and flooded hundreds of towns, villages, and undocumented archaeological sites.
Edward Burtynsky, Urban Renewal #5, City Overview From Top of Military Hospital, Shanghai, China, 2004.
Edward Burtynsky, China Recycling #2, Cutter, Fengjiang, Zhejiang Province, China, 2004.
Before Burtynsky travels to a new place, he reads widely—everything from maps and government surveys to economic reports and meteorological data.1 He was compelled to photograph industrial sites in China as a result of learning about the country’s explosive industrialization in the wake of economic reforms implemented between 1978 and 1989. The building of the Three Gorges Dam has become a symbol of this growth. By 2010, China had become the world’s largest manufacturing economy, surpassing the United States. Hydroelectricity is now a cornerstone of the country’s energy infrastructure, ushering in the development of other large dams.
Burtynsky records a mere fragment of the country’s transformation. Wan Zhou #2 shows a small, dismembered corner of the city—its walls partially demolished, its volumes wrecked, with loose masonry and rubble strewn about. These are not the ruins of art history, familiar since the Renaissance. They are contemporary and utilitarian, captured in the moment before they vanish underwater. The picture evinces neither melancholy, nor idealization—just a quiet, factual record of destruction and loss. Because of Burtynsky’s matter-of-fact treatment, it’s one of the understated images in the China project, but also among the more poignant. Unusually for the artist, atmospheric perspective and depth of field are exploited to the full here, probably because they were unavoidable. The humidity-borne dust of the apocalyptic region creates the sfumato, or smoky effect in the background, a rarity in his work.
Gallery
Edward Burtynsky, Railcuts #1, C.N. Track, Skihist Provincial Park, British Columbia, 1985, chromogenic colour print on paper, 68.7 x 86.6 cm (image).
Edward Burtynsky, Carrara Marble Quarries #24 & #25, Carrara, Italy (diptych), 1993, chromogenic colour print on paper, 68.2 x 86.2 cm (image); 76.4 x 101.4 cm (image), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Edward Burtynsky, Nickel Tailings #34 & #35, Sudbury, Ontario (diptych), 1996, chromogenic colour print on paper, 80.7 x 111.1 cm (sheet); 80.7 x 111.1 cm (sheet), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Edward Burtynsky, Oxford Tire Pile #8, Westley, California, USA, 1999, chromogenic colour print on paper, 28.6 x 37.8 cm (image); 40.7 x 5.7 cm (sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Shipbreaking #13, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000, chromogenic colour print on paper, 43.6 x 55.88 cm (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Wan Zhou #2, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China, 2002, chromogenic colour print on paper, 68.6 x 86.4 (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, SOCAR Oil Fields #3, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006.
Edward Burtynsky, Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA, 2008.
Edward Burtynsky, Pivot Irrigation #7, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA, 2011, chromogenic colour print on paper, 107.2 x 304.8 cm (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Phosphor Tailings Pond #4, Near Lakeland, Florida, USA, 2006, pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional photo paper, 148.59 x 198.12 cm (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Pengah Wall #1, Komodo National Park, Indonesia, 2017, pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional photo paper, 121.9 x 218.4 cm (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Tailings Pond #2, Wasselton Diamond Mine, Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, 2018, pigment inkjet print on Kodak Professional photo paper, 99 x 132.08 cm (image/sheet).
Edward Burtynsky, Natural Order #33, Grey County, Ontario, Canada, Spring, 2020.
Edward Burtynsky, In the Wake of Progress, 2022.