Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky discovered his passion at age 11 when his father bought him darkroom equipment and cameras for C$25. His first subject was his dog, Tippy, but the process taught him lessons that shaped a lifelong career—particularly the importance of perspective and movement. Now 70, Burtynsky is renowned for large-scale images that explore how humanity reshapes the planet, with works housed in major museums worldwide including MoMA, Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Canada.
His latest exhibition, “China in Africa,” currently showing in Hong Kong, documents China’s evolving global industrial footprint. It contrasts high-tech, automated mega-factories in China with sprawling, labour-intensive Chinese-owned industrial zones in Africa. Photographed between 2018 and 2024, the series includes both aerial and wide-angle images, staying true to Burtynsky’s fascination with scale, infrastructure, and environmental impact.
Burtynsky’s connection to industry is personal. Born in St. Catharines, Ontario—a blue-collar town reliant on General Motors—he saw the consequences of industrial labour firsthand. His father, a factory worker and aspiring artist from Ukraine, died young from PCB poisoning, a fate shared by many on the same production line. Determined to take a different path, Burtynsky turned to photography, soon becoming known in his local Ukrainian community as “the kid with the camera.”
Over his four-decade career, Burtynsky has visually chronicled industrialisation, especially in China. His 2005 book China and 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes delve into the scale and consequences of China’s manufacturing boom. With “China in Africa,” he follows that narrative abroad, capturing Chinese-built factories, roads, and resource extraction sites across Africa. His image of a BYD car factory in Jiangsu, lit like a futuristic cathedral, is juxtaposed with scenes of Ethiopian textile workers and Namibian gravel quarries.
The sheer scale of construction is staggering: in one Ethiopian zone, Chinese firms built 40 million square feet of factory space in just a year. Burtynsky invites viewers to observe rather than judge. “I’m bearing witness,” he says. His images reflect beauty and complexity, inviting reflection on globalisation’s reach and the landscapes forever changed by it.
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