It is a source of pride for Chantal Colleu-Dumond, the director of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire: to have convinced the Canadian Edward Burtynsky, “ one of the greatest photographers in the world”, to exhibit his “African Studies” in the upper galleries of the former home of Princess de Broglie.
Until now, this series of around twenty large formats had only been presented in Madrid last year. This great star of environmental photography, born in 1955 in Ontario to Ukrainian parents who emigrated to Canada four years before his birth, has never ceased to be attracted by the great outdoors and to be driven by the same desire to document the injuries inflicted on nature by man.
Like his contemporary Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the Canadian artist, a master in the art of taking aerial shots, nourishes the certainty that “ through art, human beings can be much more aware of the consequences of their activities on earth.” Aboard a Cessna, he flew over the African continent, subject to the lust of the great powers and the voracity of multinationals.
The great beauty of the soiled landscapes
We are overcome by vertigo while contemplating these disturbing images revealing the confounding beauty of these landscapes which are nevertheless soiled, gutted by mining extraction, mistreated by global warming. Everywhere, from the Niger Delta to Madagascar via Kenya, from salt mines to large desert spaces, the earth contains its pain in silence.
Educator, Edward Burtynsky warns: “ What you see is our everyday life! I wanted to show that these worlds are ours. We don’t live in the city, we don’t buy our car, without tapping into deposits of copper or iron, without creating plastic. Everything is intimately connected”
“Sishen Iron Ore Mine #2” in Kathu (South Africa), in 2018 / Edward Burtynsky / courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
Sharing this desire to “ denounce the excesses of man, with subtlety and poetry”, Chantal Colleu-Dumond went to find four other photographers (Letizia Le Fur, Laurent Millet, the German Jens Liebchen and Nicolas Bruant) who focus, each in their own way, “ to offer images suitable for happy contemplation.