ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Edward Burtynsky - Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind.

Why you should listen

To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

With his blessing and encouragement, WorldChanging.com and others use his work to inspire ongoing global conversations about sustainable living. Burtynsky's photographs are included in the collections of over 50 museums around the world, including the Tate, London and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City. A large-format book, 2003's Manufactured Landscapes, collected his work, and in 2007, a documentary based on his photography, also called Manufactured Landscapes, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before going on to screen at Sundance and elsewhere. It was released on DVD in March 2007. In 2008, after giving a talk at the Long Now Foundation, Burtynsky proposed "The 10,000 Year Gallery," which could house art to be curated over thousands of years preserved through carbon transfers in an effort to reflect the attitudes and changes of the world over time. 

When Burtynsky accepted his 2005 TED Prize, he made three wishes. One of his wishes: to build a website that will help kids think about going green. Thanks to WGBH and the TED community, the show and site Meet the Greens debuted at TED2007. His second wish: to begin work on an Imax film, which morphed into the jaw-dropping film Manufactured Landscapes with Jennifer Baichwal. And his third wish, wider in scope, was simply to encourage "a massive and productive worldwide conversation about sustainable living." Thanks to his help and the input of the TED community, the site WorldChanging.com got an infusion of energy that has helped it to grow into a leading voice in the sustainability community.

In 2016, he won a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for his work.

More profile about the speaker
Edward Burtynsky | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2009

Edward Burtynsky: Photographing the landscape of oil

Edward Burtynsky photographie le paysage du pétrole

Filmed:
550,970 views

Dans ses impressionnantes photographies en grand format, Edward Burtynsky suit le chemin du pétrole dans la société moderne, du pipeline à l'oléoduc jusqu'au moteur de voiture - puis au-delà, à la fin prévue de l'ère pétrolifère.
- Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
I startedcommencé my journeypériple 30 yearsannées agodepuis.
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J'ai commencé mon voyage il y a 30 ans.
00:18
And I workedtravaillé in minesmines. And I realizedréalisé that
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J'ai travaillé dans les mines et j'ai réalisé que
00:20
this was a worldmonde unseeninvisible.
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c'était un monde invisible.
00:22
And I wanted, throughpar colorCouleur and largegrand formatformat camerasappareils photo
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Et j'ai voulu, par des appareils couleur et grands formats,
00:24
and very largegrand printsimprime,
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et de très grands tirages,
00:26
to make a bodycorps of work that somehowen quelque sorte
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créer un ensemble de travaux qui, d'une certaine façon,
00:28
becamedevenu symbolssymboles of our
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sont devenus les symboles de notre
00:31
use of the landscapepaysage,
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utilisation des paysages,
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how we use the landterre.
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de notre utilisation de la terre.
00:35
And to me this was
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Pour moi, c'était
00:37
a keyclé componentcomposant that somehowen quelque sorte, throughpar this mediummoyen of photographyla photographie,
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un élément clef, le fait que ce médium qu'est la photographie,
00:40
whichlequel allowspermet us to contemplatecontempler these landscapespaysages,
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nous permette de contempler ces paysages,
00:43
that I thought photographyla photographie was perfectlyà la perfection suitedadapté
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m'a fait penser qu'elle était le médium idéal
00:46
to doing this typetype of work.
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pour faire ce type de travail.
00:48
And after 17 yearsannées of photographingphotographier largegrand industrialindustriel landscapespaysages,
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Après 17 ans passés à photographier de grands paysages industriels,
00:52
it occurredeu lieu to me that
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il m'a semblé que
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oilpétrole is underpinningfondement the scaleéchelle and speedla vitesse.
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le pétrole soutenait l'ampleur et la vitesse,
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Because that is what has changedmodifié,
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parce que c'est cela qui a changé :
00:58
is the speedla vitesse at whichlequel we're takingprise all our resourcesRessources.
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la vitesse à laquelle nous utilisons toutes nos ressources.
01:01
And so then I wentest allé out to developdévelopper a wholeentier seriesséries
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Voilà pourquoi j'ai commencé toute une série
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on the landscapepaysage of oilpétrole.
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sur le paysage du pétrole.
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And what I want to do is to kindgentil of mapcarte an arcarc
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Et ce que je veux faire, c'est en quelque sorte, cartographier un arc
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that there is extractionextraction, where we're takingprise it from the groundsol,
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de l'extraction, d'où nous l'extrayons du sol,
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refinementraffinement. And that's one chapterchapitre.
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et le raffinons, ce qui constitue un chapitre.
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The other chapterchapitre that I wanted to look at was
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L'autre chapitre que je voulais explorer était
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how we use it -- our citiesvilles,
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comment nous l'utilisons, nos villes
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our carsdes voitures, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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nos voitures, nos cultures,
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where people gatherrecueillir around the vehiclevéhicule
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où les gens se regroupent autour des véhicules
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as a celebrationcélébration.
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comme pour une célébration.
01:27
And then the thirdtroisième one is this ideaidée of the endfin of oilpétrole,
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Enfin le troisième chapitre est l'idée de la fin du pétrole,
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this entropicentropique endfin,
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cette fin entropique,
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where all of our partsles pièces of carsdes voitures, our tirespneus,
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où toutes les pièces détachées des voitures, nos pneus,
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oilpétrole filtersfiltres,
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filtres à huile,
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helicoptershélicoptères, planesAvions --
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hélicoptères, avions --
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where are the landscapespaysages where all of that stuffdes trucs endsprend fin up?
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où sont les paysages où toutes ces choses finissent ?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyla photographie was
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Et pour moi, à nouveau, la photographie était
01:43
a way in whichlequel I could exploreexplorer and researchrecherche the worldmonde,
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un moyen qui me permettait d'explorer et de parcourir le monde,
01:46
and find those placesdes endroits.
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et de trouver ces endroits.
01:48
And anotherun autre ideaidée that I had as well,
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Une autre idée que j'ai eue aussi
01:50
that was broughtapporté forwardvers l'avant by an ecologistécologiste --
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m'a été soufflée par un écologiste --
01:54
he basicallyen gros did a calculationcalcul where
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Il a simplement effectué un calcul où
01:57
he tooka pris one literlitre of gasgaz and said,
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il a pris un litre d'essence et a dit,
01:59
well, how much carboncarbone it would take, and how much organicbiologique materialMatériel?
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bon, de combien de carbone j'aurais besoin et de combien de matière organique ?
02:03
It was 23 metricmétrique tonstonnes for one literlitre.
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Il a calculé 23 tonnes pour un litre.
02:06
So whenevern'importe quand I fillremplir up my gasgaz,
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Donc à chaque fois que je fais le plein d'essence,
02:08
I think of that literlitre, and how much carboncarbone.
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je pense à ce litre, et à la quantité équivalente de carbone.
02:10
And I know that oilpétrole comesvient from the oceanocéan and phytoplanktonphytoplancton,
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Et je sais que le pétrole vient de l'océan et du phytoplancton.
02:13
but he did the calculationscalculs for our EarthTerre
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Mais il a fait les calculs pour notre Terre
02:16
and what it had to do to produceproduire that amountmontant of energyénergie.
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et ce que cela lui a demandé pour produire cette quantité d'énergie.
02:18
From the photosyntheticphotosynthétique growthcroissance,
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Par la photosynthèse,
02:20
it would take 500 yearsannées of that growthcroissance
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cela prendrait 500 ans
02:23
to produceproduire what we use, the 30 billionmilliard barrelsbarils we use perpar yearan.
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pour produire ce que nous utilisons, les 30 milliards de barils par an.
02:28
And that alsoaussi broughtapporté me to the factfait that
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Ce qui m'a aussi amené au fait que
02:30
this posespose suchtel a riskrisque to our societysociété.
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cela représente une sérieuse menace pour notre société.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmilliard perpar yearan,
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Face à 30 milliards de barils par an,
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we look at our two largestplus grand suppliersFournisseurs,
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nous regardons nos deux plus importants fournisseurs,
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SaudiArabie saoudite ArabiaArabia and now CanadaCanada, with its dirtysale oilpétrole.
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l'Arabie Saoudite et maintenant le Canada, avec son pétrole "sale".
02:42
And togetherensemble they only formforme about 15 yearsannées of supplyla fourniture.
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Ensemble, ils ne représentent que 15 années de nos besoins.
02:46
The wholeentier worldmonde, at 1.2 trillionbillion estimatedestimé reservesréserves,
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La planète, avec ses 1200 milliards de réserves estimées,
02:49
only givesdonne us about 45 yearsannées.
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ne nous en fournit que pour 45 années.
02:51
So, it's not a questionquestion of if, but a questionquestion of when
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Ce n'est donc plus une question de "si", mais bien une question de "quand"
02:54
peakde pointe oilpétrole will come uponsur us.
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nous atteindrons le pic du pétrole.
02:56
So, to me, usingen utilisant photographyla photographie --
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Donc pour moi, utiliser la photographie --
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now begincommencer to really
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je pense que nous tous, nous devons commencer à réellement
03:01
take the tasktâche of usingen utilisant our talentstalents,
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nous forcer à nous servir de nos talents,
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our waysfaçons of thinkingen pensant,
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de nos façons de penser,
03:06
to begincommencer to dealtraiter with what I think is probablyProbablement
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pour commencer à traiter ce que je pense être, probablement,
03:08
one of the mostles plus challengingdifficile issuesproblèmes of our time,
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l'un des problèmes les plus stimulants de notre époque :
03:11
how to dealtraiter with our energyénergie crisiscrise.
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régler notre crise énergétique.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sidecôté of it,
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Je voudrais dire également, qu'à côté de cela,
03:15
30, 40 yearsannées from now, the childrenles enfants that I have,
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dans 30 ou 40 ans, je voudrais pouvoir regarder mes enfants
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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et leur dire que nous avons fait tout
03:19
we possiblypeut-être, humanlyhumainement could do,
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ce qui était humainement possible
03:22
to begincommencer to mitigateatténuer les this,
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pour commencer à atténuer cela,
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what I feel is one of the mostles plus importantimportant and criticalcritique
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ce que je pense être l'un des moments les plus importants et critiques
03:27
momentsdes moments in our time. Thank you.
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de notre époque. Merci.
03:30
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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Applaudissements.
Translated by stephen lecourt
Reviewed by eric vautier

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Edward Burtynsky - Photographer
2005 TED Prize winner Edward Burtynsky has made it his life's work to document humanity's impact on the planet. His riveting photographs, as beautiful as they are horrifying, capture views of the Earth altered by mankind.

Why you should listen

To describe Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in a single adjective, you have to speak French: jolie-laide. His images of scarred landscapes -- from mountains of tires to rivers of bright orange waste from a nickel mine -- are eerily pretty yet ugly at the same time. Burtynsky's large-format color photographs explore the impact of humanity's expanding footprint and the substantial ways in which we're reshaping the surface of the planet. His images powerfully alter the way we think about the world and our place in it.

With his blessing and encouragement, WorldChanging.com and others use his work to inspire ongoing global conversations about sustainable living. Burtynsky's photographs are included in the collections of over 50 museums around the world, including the Tate, London and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City. A large-format book, 2003's Manufactured Landscapes, collected his work, and in 2007, a documentary based on his photography, also called Manufactured Landscapes, debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before going on to screen at Sundance and elsewhere. It was released on DVD in March 2007. In 2008, after giving a talk at the Long Now Foundation, Burtynsky proposed "The 10,000 Year Gallery," which could house art to be curated over thousands of years preserved through carbon transfers in an effort to reflect the attitudes and changes of the world over time. 

When Burtynsky accepted his 2005 TED Prize, he made three wishes. One of his wishes: to build a website that will help kids think about going green. Thanks to WGBH and the TED community, the show and site Meet the Greens debuted at TED2007. His second wish: to begin work on an Imax film, which morphed into the jaw-dropping film Manufactured Landscapes with Jennifer Baichwal. And his third wish, wider in scope, was simply to encourage "a massive and productive worldwide conversation about sustainable living." Thanks to his help and the input of the TED community, the site WorldChanging.com got an infusion of energy that has helped it to grow into a leading voice in the sustainability community.

In 2016, he won a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for his work.

More profile about the speaker
Edward Burtynsky | Speaker | TED.com
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