Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode: New Photography Show Depicts Humanity's Impact On Nature
Date: September 9, 2025
Guests:

• Host: Alison Stewart (A)
• Guest: Edward Burtynsky (B), Photographer

Episode Overview

This episode explores photographer Edward Burtynsky’s sweeping new exhibition, The Great Acceleration, now on view at the International Center for Photography in Lower Manhattan. Host Alison Stewart interviews Burtynsky about his decades-long focus on capturing the environmental consequences of human industry, from mines and quarries to sprawling cities and industrial agriculture. The conversation delves into the strategies behind Burtynsky’s monumental photographs, the sociopolitical commentary woven into his work, and the technical and ethical challenges of depicting humanity’s impact on the natural world.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Burtynsky’s Path to Environmental Photography

• Formative Years: Growing up in Canada, Burtynsky witnessed untouched wilderness contrasted starkly with industrialized landscapes.
  • “It is like looking into deep time…what the beavers and the deer saw tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago. So it's kind of a window into what was intended for the planet.” (B, 01:14)
• Personal History: After his father’s early death, he worked in heavy industry to fund his education, which exposed him to the true origins of everyday materials.
  • Realized “we don't really understand where things come from...my lifetime work is to kind of pull the curtain back on where things come from and to show the scale of human impact on the planet.” (B, 01:45)

Research-Driven, Large-Scale Visual Storytelling

• Approach: Each project begins with a central idea (e.g., giant dams, shipbreaking yards, vast quarries). He seeks out the world’s largest or most significant examples as a way to examine humanity’s values and priorities.
  • Example: Sought out “the biggest dam in the world...the biggest factories in the world in China...the biggest quarries in Carrara, Italy or Vermont.” (B, 03:34)
• Visual Impact: Burtynsky’s images are purposely designed to make viewers pause, reflect, and question.
  • “I'm really interested in making images that make us stop and make us think. The landscape reveals our value system.” (B, 04:23)
• On Agricultural Transformation:
  • “100% of arable land in the US: 30% is agriculture, 1% urban, less than 1% industrial. The thing we've done more to change the surface...is farming.” (B, 04:47)

The Meaning of “The Great Acceleration”

• The show's title references the vast spike in human consumption and expansion post-World War II, fundamentally changing planetary systems.
  • “We're in this Great Acceleration...population goes from 2.8 billion to over 8 billion in my lifetime...this is what's actually creating the big existential threat.” (B, 05:56)
  • Connecting environmental, economic, and cultural changes with the pace of modernity and consumerism. (05:20–06:48)

Case Studies from the Exhibition

Salt River Pima & Maricopa Indian Community (2001)

• Image Description: Stark contrast between undeveloped land and densely populated suburbs in Arizona, highlighting contradictions in water use and expansion into the desert.
  • “Here we are in a super scarce environment for water and everybody's got a pool...Should anything happen to the Colorado river water...there's a real existential threat to that whole community.” (B, 08:19)

Mines and Quarries

• Longstanding Fascination: These sites represent both the industrial process and Burtynsky’s method—extracting value and stories from overlooked places.
  • “We have to mine our way [to net zero]...we have to do [in 25 years] what we've done in 7,000 years—the demand for copper, for instance, is immense.” (B, 10:18–11:00)

Massive Pivot Irrigation Farming (Texas Panhandle)

• Centerpiece Image: 30’ x 30’ mural print of pivot irrigation, underscoring farming as humanity’s primary transformation of the planet.
  • “The thing that we've done that has the greatest impact on nature is farming...70% of everything we grow feeds the animals we eat.” (B, 12:03–12:48)
  • “Ogallala Aquifer…estimates were 10 Lake Erie's of water...I think we've used up two already. It's not replenishing. So it is a one-way trip.” (B, 12:49)

The Artistic Choices: Scale and Technology

• Oversized Prints: Scale is crucial to evoke the true enormity of human intervention. The largest piece was designed specifically to dominate a square wall at ICP.
  • “Looking at the show, it shows my student work...I was photographing farming in 1980...it feels benign but it's a big problem.” (B, 13:25–13:52)
• From Film to Digital:
  • Digital methods allow for higher detail, seamless compositing, and unprecedented control.
    • “It offers complete control…can stitch multiple frames…that big mural is a composite of six frames, stitched together. You're looking at billboard-sized images with the detail of something on a smaller scale.” (B, 14:32–15:02)
    • “With digital, I'm creating kinds of images I couldn’t even imagine. I shot 8x10 film before that and now I'm exceeding that quality.” (B, 15:31)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Burtynsky's Philosophy:

  “You can almost see it as a 40-year lament for a loss of something for our gain.”
  (B, 01:59)

• On What the Landscape Reveals:

  “The landscape, I think, has that capacity because it really does reveal our value system…if I was an alien from another planet, I’d be really interested in knowing what we’re doing to our planet.”
  (B, 04:18)

• On the Paradox of Progress:

  “To get to net zero, we need heat pumps, electric motors, electric grids…and our mines are actually almost depleted…we’ll be hitting walls for our materials to build a net zero world.”
  (B, 10:47–11:08)

• On Technology & Seeing:

  “We see the world differently through a photograph than we do through our eyes…here you’re looking at this sharp field across the whole field. There’s a lot to look at in these places.”
  (B, 15:20)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:09 – Burtynsky’s early influences and drive
• 03:05 – Research process for images; seeking largest/most significant sites
• 05:20 – Explanation of “The Great Acceleration,” historical context
• 07:23 – Story behind the Salt River Pima & Maricopa photo
• 09:04 – Return to mines/quarries and industrial extraction
• 11:20 – Significance of large pivot irrigation mural; role of agriculture
• 13:00 – Artistic scale and intent behind mural-sized photographs
• 14:24 – Transition from film to digital photography, technical innovations
• 16:20 – Shooting from a plane, practical advantages

Conclusion

Burtynsky’s work in "The Great Acceleration" is both a visual spectacle and a grave meditation on the relentless pace and scale of humanity’s interventions in the environment. His approach—identifying the planet’s largest sites of transformation, documenting them with immense clarity and size—aims to force viewers to reckon with modern life’s hidden costs and contradictions. Through stories of research, personal reflection, and technological innovation, the episode reveals the meticulous artistry and cautionary urgency behind Burtynsky's photographs.

Exhibition:
The Great Acceleration by Edward Burtynsky
International Center for Photography, Lower Manhattan
Runs until September 28th, 2025