EDWARD BURTYNSKY:
THE LANDSCAPE THAT WE CHANGE

The exhibition Edward Burtynsky: The Landscape That We Change is comprised of a selection of thirty photographic images from several series including landscape works from the early 1980s to more recent images chosen from his Mining photographs, as well as Railcuts, Homesteads, Tailings, Oil, and others. Burtynsky’s photographs present the “disrupted” landscapes; those created by the technology used in the extraction of minerals and energy from the planet, and those changed by the need for extensive delivery systems put in place to move materials for production of goods. Several photographs representing the end of life of the manufactured consumer products as expended materials are also included.

The artist’s vision of photographing these “new landscapes of our time” continues to be realized through his decades-long examination of the environments that humans have changed, not only in Canada but also the United States, Asia, and other countries that have directly or indirectly experienced the impact of the exponential growth of consumer culture.

Burtynsky does not seek to position his images into the realm of political polemic. The artist has stated that they “are what they are.” His photographs engage the observer through what the artist refers to as a “duality” in the viewing process. In Burtynsky’s aesthetic interpretation, his images render the subject most often in rich colour, detail, and textural qualities. Simultaneously, the observer is made aware of the devastation and altered state of nature that is portrayed. The tension generated by mediating the
dual nature of the individual’s response to the image is intended to provoke a thoughtful dialogue about the environment and societal attitudes.

ANSEL ADAMS: MASTERWORKS

Organized by the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in association with Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California

JUNE 29 to September 29, 2013

During his decades-long career, American-born Ansel Adams produced an extensive body of work that established him as arguably the most important and influential photographer in the development of twentieth-century photography. The exhibition Ansel Adams: Masterworks contains a representative selection of forty-seven photographs and a portrait of Adams by James Alinder, a fellow photographer and curator of two Ansel Adams exhibitions.

The exhibition images show the range of the artist’s development. Adam’s early work that was originally photographed in the1920s, a period of intense activity, refined his aesthetic vision for interpreting the land and other details of the natural world and ultimately lead to the sweeping landscape vistas associated with his later work for which the artist is renowned.

The photographic images on display were specifically chosen by the artist to represent the best of his work which were then produced as prints for a project known as “The Museum Set”. The idea for this series was proposed to Adams in 1979 by Maggi Weston of the Weston Gallery of California. The number of images and the total number of prints would be limited. The resulting portfolios of prints would be available to institutions for their collections. Although Adams produced a considerable number of the prints, due to his advancing age he was not able to complete the entire project before his death in 1984.

The landscape photographs by Adams comprise the largest component of the show on view at the McMichael. In addition, there are two smaller selections of four portraits and three images of built environments by Adams.

This collection was donated to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, California by Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez.