Manufactured Landscapes Response - Edward Burtynsky

Manufactured Landscapes Response - Edward Burtynsky

I watched his TED talk because the video was not available on-line when I went to watch it.

I find it extremely interesting that he began by photographing nature but he wasn't satisfied with the results. He's a naturalist/enviromentalist so he photographs the complete opposite to showcase the juxtaposition. It's great work. We've all seen a national or skatepark overlook with scenic views and vast expanses with no people, but very few people see what he photographs. He's presenting us with a vast amount of visual information that directly relates to our consumer driven culture. I remember being a small kid and taking a field trip to the city dump. Our teacher told us that when we throw things away, they don't go away, they end up here in the ground. I will never forget it, and it's a part of what's made me who I am today.

Andreas Gursky Response and Questions from class

I enjoyed his earlier landscapes with the tiny dots of people (or a person) the most. There is something about how vast the landscape is while the human remains so small. I think it speaks to our state currently in the Earth, the human race being such a small part of, as well as to the existence of man in terms of time to the planet. 


1. Is the deapan’s detached, distant, analytical, banal approach somehow distill our cultural mood? 
2. Does it represent the way people feel disconnected from one another, even if technology makes them more interconnected than ever? 
3. And is deadpan photography a refuge or reflection of emotion when we are overwhelmed with terrorism, war, ecological and natural disaster? 
4. Does its uniformity of the style reflect our mass-produced, chain-store world? 
5. Has our ability to document just about anything made us do just that...


All of those prompts just seem to overthought and far reaching. This style started before cellphones and digital images, so it's origin isn't from "to much photos or data" existing. Maybe current trends are leaning that way, but it's original intent is far from that. Bernd and Hilla Becher used deadpan to help us make connections between things. They wanted people and Germans in particular to see these buildings as a collective series even though they were all so different. They were trying to spur people to preserve these older and very individual/unique styles of architecture. 

Deadpan was popular, and is popular still because it is both distant and connected at the same time. The photographs are with-out emotion and are not highly stylized. The people seem normal, and in most cases are normal people, not actors or models. The images of landscapes or locations are nothing particularly photograph worthy. Both of these things make the pictures seem like they could have been taken by anyone. Some of them seem like old family snapshots or photos I took of places I liked as a child. Their distance and simple nature make them approachable.