Patterns of Extraction

A new series of aerial images from photographer Edward Burtynsky reveals sites of displacement, erasure, and extractionall, at first glance, sublime across five African countries. From the breathtaking expanse of the Sishen Iron Ore Mine to the controlled might of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a story of reshaped and redefined landscapes emerges. 

Burtynsky makes visible the scope of human impact in sub-Saharan Africa, inviting viewers to digest vistas of both beauty and destruction, and to witness the marks, physical and abstract, that we set into the Earth.

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