Edward Burtynsky

Happy Victoria Day!

In tech class this past week we have started our photography unit. To commence it, we watched a documentary on the famous photographer Edward Burtynsky.

The film Manufactured Landscapes, is a documentary of how Burtynsky photographs his main subjects, which are manufactured landscapes. I found the film very interesting because it demonstrates the effort he puts in to taking these magnificent photos. It gives us a very real idea of where all of the materials we use come from, and the damage it does on not only the environment, but peoples' living conditions in other countries such as China. Although it was a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning, I can tell that it is purposeful in order to catch our attention again, and to show the scale of such industries. At the start of the film, there is a long stretch of video for several minutes of the camera travelling through a factory that makes irons. As mentioned before, it shows us how large the factory is, and how many people there are. The other thing that impacted the film hugely were the sounds in the background. They were very subtle, but they were enough to make someone feel inspired, scared, disgusted, etc. If the sounds were absent, there would be something missing from the film.

I've researched his work, and the picture on the left is the one I recognize the most. At first I thought it was just another beautiful picture. Once I read about it I was shocked; I thought that this disgustingly tainted water was from somewhere else in the world, but it is from Sudbury, Ontario in 1996.

I like how Burtynsky takes all of the environmental problems we fight so hard to push to the back of our minds and shoves them in our faces once again so we cannot help but acknowledge them.

The second picture os of the massive oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico a year ago. Looking at the images, it's easy to imagine just how huge these landscapes are. Without the pictures acting as visual guides, if we had only heard about the oil spill, the effect wouldn't be the same.

All in all, I really like Burtynsky's work and the impact it makes.

Leonid Afremov

There are many times that a painting will catch my eye, but only once in a while will I stop to stare at a painting just to take in the beauty of it. I was on StumbleUpon (yet again), and happened upon the artist Leonid Afremov. What I thought was especially unique was his use of the palette knife. I've always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to use oil paint as my medium, so oil paintings fascinate me.

Towards Love

The effect the palette knife makes fascinates me, because even though there are fairly large blocks of colour, when looked at from a distance, it all comes together.

With the palette knife, it's easy to create the effect of water, so many of Afremov's paintings have to do with rain or water bodies. The reflection on the ground feels real although you can tell it is a painting.

I like these pieces because they have such a gentle and serene feel to them. The vibrant colours often create the illusion of a sunset.

That's about all I have to say; after seeing these I know I want to experiment with oil paints and palette knives.

Rain of Fire

Have a nice Wednesday! And you can check out the rest of the paintings HERE.