The Great Acceleration

A retrospective of Edward Burtynsky's photography from the past 40 years, The Great Acceleration reveals the depth of Burtynsky's investigation into the human alteration of natural landscapes around the world, showing their present fragility and enduring beauty in equal measure. Including many of Burtynsky's landmark images, some of which have never previously been published, the book is an urgent call to action, inviting us to appreciative the sublimity that remains in nature while deepening our understanding of the challenges and responsibilities confronting us today.
"The Great Acceleration" is an established term used to describe the rapid rise of human impact on our planet, among them population growth, water usage, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, resource extraction and food production, each of which Burtynsky has photographed the signs of in great detail throughout his career. From open pit mines across North America to oil derricks in Azerbaijan, from rice terraces in China to oil bunkering in Nigeria, Burtynsky has traveled the world and back again as part of his restless and seemingly inexhaustible drive to discover the ways, both old and new, that organized human activity has transformed Earth. Though already unified by both the precision and formal beauty of Burtynsky's photographs, The Great Acceleration further underscores that, like their respective subjects, each project remains fundamentally interconnected.

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary photographers. Since the early 1980s Burtynsky's imagery has explored the collective impact we as a species are exerting on the environment. Renowned for his sustained investigation of the "indelible human signature" caused by industrial incursions into the landscape, previous projects have explored mining, quarrying, manufacturing, agriculture, shipping, the production of oil, and the development of China. In addition, he has made three award-winning films with director Jennifer Baichwal, Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Watermark (2013) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018). Burtynsky's books with Steidl are China (2005), Quarries (2007), Oil (2009), Water (2013), Salt Pans (2016), Anthropocene (2018), Natural Order (2020) and African Studies (2023).