28.03. – 24.05.2014


EDWARD BURTYNSKY
WATER Part II
NEW RELEASES


The Galerie Springer Berlin is pleased to present to you Part 2 of the exhibition WATER by EDWARD BURTYNSKY. The second part of the exhibition features, for the most part, new, previously unpublished works from the series.

Along with the film WATERMARK and the BURTYNSKY – WATER book (Steidl), it is Mr Burtynsky’s largest project to date, documenting the scale and impact of manufacturing and consumption on the world’s water supplies. Burtynsky chronicles the various roles that water plays in modern life – as a source of healthy ecosystems and energy, as a key element in cultural and religious rituals and as a rapidly depleting resource. The photographs, both beautiful and haunting, create a compelling global portrait that illustrates humanity’s past, present and future relationship with the natural world.

Shooting in ten different countries for the WATER project, Burtynsky’s subjects include dry-land farming in Spain, pivot irrigation sites in Texas, and the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In these instances, Burtynsky took to the air using conventional helicopters, remote controlled helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft, to bring the scale of the human imprint into a more meaningful perspective. He also travelled to photograph millions of people bathing in the cleansing power of the sacred Ganges River in India; mega-dam construction on the upper Yangtze and the once-a-year silt release on the Yellow River in China, the precious virgin watersheds of British Columbia and the dry beds of the Colorado River Delta.

The documentary WATERMARK by Edward Burtynsky and the multiple award-winning director Jennifer Baichwal ("Manufactured Landscapes") shows in fascinating images the universal significance of water and the importance of this essential resource for the future. After the celebrated European première of the film at this year's Berlinale, the film launches nationwide on 15 May 2014. The world première took place at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Here, the work was awarded the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award 2013.