By Paul Laster
Photographer Edward Burtynsky knows a lot about oil and our uncontrollable dependency on it. The 2005 TED prizewinner traveled the world for more than a decade photographing polluted oil fields, crisscrossing highways, manufacturers’ lots overflowing with new cars, and wastelands of discarded tires and junked vehicles. Edward Burtynsky: Oil, a traveling exhibition that documents the effects of oil on our lives was on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC earlier this year, and opens at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Canada in September. Adding to this body of work, Burtynsky journeyed to the Gulf of Mexico in May to capture amazing aerial views of the BP oil spill as it seeped into our lives.
