Published on the occasion of Edward Burtynsky's largest and most comprehensive exhibition to
date at the Saatchi Gallery London Extraction Abstraction looks deeply at the key subjects
and signature images spanning his 45-year career. Alongside Burtynsky's compelling photographs
the book includes texts by celebrated art historian Simon Schama who examines Burtynsky's work
in light of the question Can art help save the world? and by curator Marc Mayer former
director of the National Gallery of Canada who provides an overview of the photographer's
achievements as technician journalist and artist. Extraction Abstraction presents a
dichotomy of Burtynsky's image-making imperative: the lucid and informed documentation of
large-scale extractive processes and how he transforms the landscapes of industry into
complete abstractions. Other essential themes in his oeuvre such as agriculture manufacturing
infrastructure and waste also find their rightful place here. With more than 130 color plates
the book furthermore has a special section the Process Archive featuring previously
unpublished behind-the-scenes photographs of Burtynsky at work on the ground and in the air
throughout his career. The archive provides a glimpse into the artist's progression through the
evolution of the medium itself from mid twentieth-century large-format analogue (film-based)
cameras through to twenty-first-century high-resolution digital technologies including
explorations into photogrammetry and augmented reality.
