Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is one of the world’s most important contemporary artists. His life and art have been dedicated to investigating the large-scale human incursions into the surface of the earth, to dealing with climate change, and to demonstrating the proliferation of toxins that threaten the very existence of civilization. This narrative—focused on the aesthetic means that Burtynsky has utilised to frame those issues—describes in detail the unfolding of his artistry.

Through a long and varied career, Burtynsky has charted the ways in which humankind is systematically annihilating the biodiversity of our planet, and by extension, itself. He has devoted most of his creative life to this endeavour. One of the major thrusts of this book concerns Burtynsky’s crusade to display earth’s destruction. In vivid, visually compelling ways he shows our world in crisis. His work emphasizes how various forms of extraction have endangered its survival. He is an explorer of how humanity is at odds with nature.