Manufactured Landscapes

“Manufactured Landscapes” is a term coined by the brilliant photographer, Edward Burtynsky, to describe landscapes that have been altered by large-scale human activity. The goal of his photographs — and those in this brief photo essay — is to raise questions of the interplay of environmental ethics and aesthetics.

Carefully viewed, an oil refinery is both a contributor to climate change and a complex and beautiful geometry of pipes, tanks and structural steel. It provides jobs and products that allow our economy to function, but may shorten man’s time on earth.

Shipping containers are simple, steel boxes that allow products to flow from country to county without consideration of their merit. Electronic waste is shipped in containers, as are armaments, but so is life-sustaining packaged food and beautiful clothing. The tradeoffs are not obvious, but all of this exists in the manufactured landscapes that we see each day.