"The world is my raw material and I take the idea I want to do and let the research carry me to the location. Then I use the skill I have as a photographer to try and translate that particular place into an image that somehow sums up the idea I was in pursuit of".
"I work to create an image that draws people in with its aesthetic, but then has them grappling with it and wonder why they are drawn to it. They're thinking 'I am reacting against what I am seeing, but drawn to it.' Its like a forbidden pleasure. If it makes the viewer somewhat uncomfortable, that is interesting. Ultimately that mirrors the dilemma we are all experiencing. If we know of the population growth, and what we are doing to the atmosphere, causing untold grief, with ice caps melting and polar bears running out of habitat, resources being extracted at a rate that will impoverish future generations-and yet at the same time we are compelled and drawn to a quality of life with a decent job, money put aside for retirement, and we are conditioned that way. We know that with all of us doing this it creates a major problem. If we all want this lifestyle the earth can no longer support this. We would need two or three earths in resources to bring us all up to this standard of living". Quotes from Photo-Wisdom. Master Photographers on Their Art. Lewis Blackwell.
The reason I have looked more into the work of Burtynsky because I am planning a trip to Poland in March and would very much like to do a similar set of photographs whilst on my trip, based on the salt mines there and also Auschwitz and Birkenau, and use these images for the foreign/alien environment section of the places brief. I find Burtunsky's work very interesting to look at because of the colours and contrast. The images all follow a certain pattern throughout each individual photograph that makes it very interesting to look at.
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