Edward Burtynsky’s photographs show a not-so futuristic dystopia.
Oil. What is it good for? Well, quite a lot of things. That’s the problem. Photographer Edward Burtynsky has spent a decade making his series, Oil, which looks at the production, manufacture and uses of the stuff.
Be it tangled freeways and sprawling ship breaking graveyards, often it’s only by dramatic aerial views that we get a sense of the scale of the creation and destruction our pursuit of “black gold” has wrought.
On a cheerier note, the exhibition will mark the reopening of The Photographers’ Gallery, which has a swanky new building in central London (presumably made using cranes running entirely on recycled chip fat).
Burtynsky: Oil runs from 19 May to 1 July, The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1 photonet.org.uk
