[HN Gopher] Edward Burtynsky's monumental chronicle of the human...
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       Edward Burtynsky's monumental chronicle of the human impact on the
       planet
        
       Author : pseudolus
       Score  : 104 points
       Date   : 2025-07-13 02:47 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
        
       | pseudolus wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/hTj6w
        
         | linusg789 wrote:
         | http://web.archive.org/web/20250713051005/https://www.newyor...
        
       | cardamomo wrote:
       | There's a fantastic documentary about Burtynsky's work,
       | Manufactured Landscapes. I highly recommend it, even if you just
       | watch the opening.
       | https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/films/manufactured-...
        
         | Duanemclemore wrote:
         | It's actually the first in what became a series!
         | 
         | Watermark [0] and The Anthropocene[1] are both phenomenal. In
         | fact, in terms of cinematography, I think Watermark is the
         | best. Manufactured Landscapes was absolutely earth-shattering
         | in my own consideration of humans and our ecologies though.
         | 
         | If you find yourself liking Burtynsky may I also suggest
         | checking out Richard Misrach and the classic book of Manfred
         | Hamm photography, Dead Tech [2].
         | 
         | (We'd be remiss to leave out the contributions of Jennifer
         | Baichwal to all three films and Nicholas de Pencier on The
         | Anthropocene.)
         | 
         | [0] https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/films/watermark
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/films/anthropocene-...
         | 
         | [2] https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Tech-Guide-Archaeology-
         | Tomorrow/... (Only linked to Amazon because people have posted
         | images)
        
           | cardamomo wrote:
           | Wow, thanks for telling me! I watched Manufactured Landscapes
           | back before the other two had come out and hadn't heard about
           | the rest of the trilogy.
        
         | cnr wrote:
         | The whole movie is available on Internet Archive:
         | https://archive.org/details/ManufacturedLandscapes_201902
        
         | ethan_smith wrote:
         | Burtynsky's environmental trilogy is worth exploring in full:
         | Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Watermark (2013), and
         | Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018).
        
           | bookofjoe wrote:
           | All three available to stream on Prime Video
        
       | atoav wrote:
       | The first picture must be these windmills that ruin the
       | landscape. /s
        
       | pseudolus wrote:
       | Link to the show at the International Center of Photography
       | (NYC): https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/edward-burtynsky-great-
       | accel...
       | 
       | Petapixel article with more photos and commentary:
       | https://petapixel.com/2025/06/24/photographer-edward-burtyns...
        
       | jebarker wrote:
       | I just finished reading "The Sixth Extinction" and it's hard not
       | to just feel sadness at many of these pictures. The economic
       | benefits of this rapid human development are undeniable but the
       | impact on earth as a whole is pretty horrifying.
        
         | frogperson wrote:
         | That book put me in a really bad place for more than a year. It
         | was so depressing, i just couldnt shake the inevitablity of it
         | all.
         | 
         | The fascist take over of the US has been a quaint distraction,
         | but in the end it also means nothing compared to the collapse
         | of the food chain. You cant eat dollars.
        
           | jebarker wrote:
           | Yeah, the dissonance of day to day stresses and societal
           | issues with mass extinction is hard to deal with. I'm
           | currently putting together a pile of a few books that claim
           | to have pragmatic but optimistic/hopeful views of where we go
           | from here.
        
             | vitorbaptistaa wrote:
             | Any good suggestions so far? The best I read was Not The
             | End of The World by Hannah Ritchie from Our World in Data.
        
               | jebarker wrote:
               | Thanks for the suggestion. Two I've already read that I
               | thought were decent were Bill Gate's "How to avoid a
               | climate disaster" and Kim Stanley Robinson's "Ministry
               | for the Future". I have Drawdown next on my list.
        
       | AndrewKemendo wrote:
       | Scarcely different than the world shown in WALL-E or idiocracy
        
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       (page generated 2025-07-13 23:01 UTC)