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

Fotografije naftnih krajolika Edwarda Burtynskog

Filmed:
550,970 views

Svojim zadivljujućim panoramskim fotografijama, Edward Burtynsky prati put nafte kroz moderno društvo: od bušotine do naftovoda i automobilskih motora sve do predviđenog završetka maksimalne točke u proizvodnji nafte.
- 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 startedpočeo my journeyputovanje 30 yearsgodina agoprije.
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Svoje putovanje započeo sam prije 30 godina.
00:18
And I workedradio in minesmine. And I realizedshvatio that
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Radeći u rudnicima shvatio sam
00:20
this was a worldsvijet unseennevidjeno.
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da se radi o još neviđenom dijelu svijeta.
00:22
And I wanted, throughkroz colorboja and largeveliki formatformat cameraskamere
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Želja mi je, stoga, bila da pomoću boje i panoramskih fotoaparata
00:24
and very largeveliki printsispisuje,
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te velikih, panoramskih ispisa,
00:26
to make a bodytijelo of work that somehownekako
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sastaviti opus koji bi na neki način
00:28
becamepostao symbolssimboli of our
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postao simbol našeg
00:31
use of the landscapepejzaž,
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korištenja krajolika,
00:33
how we use the landzemljište.
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načina na koji se služimo zemljom.
00:35
And to me this was
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Za mene je
00:37
a keyključ componentsastavni dio that somehownekako, throughkroz this mediumsrednji of photographyfotografija,
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ključni čimbenik bio: koristiti se fotografijom
00:40
whichkoji allowsomogućuje us to contemplaterazmišljati these landscapeskrajolici,
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koja nam omogućava da promišljamo te krajolike.
00:43
that I thought photographyfotografija was perfectlysavršeno suitedprilagođen
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Fotografija je, mislio sam, savršena
00:46
to doing this typetip of work.
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za ovakvu vrstu posla.
00:48
And after 17 yearsgodina of photographingfotografiranje largeveliki industrialindustrijski landscapeskrajolici,
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I nakon 17 godina fotografiranja velikih industrijskih krajolika,
00:52
it occurreddogodio to me that
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shvatio sam da
00:54
oilulje is underpinningoslonac the scaleljestvica and speedubrzati.
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je nafta ta koja ilustrira razmjer i brzinu,
00:56
Because that is what has changedpromijenjen,
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jer upravo je to ono što se promijenilo:
00:58
is the speedubrzati at whichkoji we're takinguzimanje all our resourcesresursi.
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brzina kojom crpimo sve naše resurse.
01:01
And so then I wentotišao out to developrazviti a wholečitav seriesniz
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Tako sam započeo stvarati čitavu seriju fotografija
01:03
on the landscapepejzaž of oilulje.
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na temu naftnih krajolika.
01:05
And what I want to do is to kindljubazan of mapkarta an arcluk
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I ono što želim je izraditi neku vrstu karte kretanja
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that there is extractionvađenje, where we're takinguzimanje it from the groundtlo,
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od vađenja, kada ju izvlačimo iz zemlje
01:13
refinementograničavanje broja rezultata. And that's one chapterpoglavlje.
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i prerade - što predstavlja prvo poglavlje.
01:15
The other chapterpoglavlje that I wanted to look at was
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Drugo poglavlje koje sam htio uzeti u obzir vezano je za
01:17
how we use it -- our citiesgradovi,
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način na koji ju koristimo: naši gradovi,
01:19
our carsautomobili, our motorculturesmotorcultures,
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naši automobili, naša automobilska kultura,
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where people gatherokupiti around the vehiclevozilo
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gdje se ljudi okupljaju oko vozila
01:25
as a celebrationproslava.
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kao na nekakvoj svečanosti.
01:27
And then the thirdtreći one is this ideaideja of the endkraj of oilulje,
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Zatim, tu je i treće poglavlje vezano za ideju o kraju zaliha nafte,
01:29
this entropicentropijskim endkraj,
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tom entropijskom kraju,
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where all of our partsdijelovi of carsautomobili, our tiresgume,
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gdje su svi dijelovi naših automobila, guma,
01:34
oilulje filtersfilteri,
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naftni filtri,
01:36
helicoptersHelikopteri, planeszrakoplovi --
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helikopteri, avioni...
01:38
where are the landscapeskrajolici where all of that stuffstvari endskrajevi up?
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Gdje su ti krajolici kamo sve to nestaje?
01:41
And to me, again, photographyfotografija was
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Ponavljam, fotografija predstavlja za mene
01:43
a way in whichkoji I could exploreistražiti and researchistraživanje the worldsvijet,
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način na koji mogu proučavati i istraživati svijet
01:46
and find those placesmjesta.
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i pronaći ta mjesta.
01:48
And anotherjoš ideaideja that I had as well,
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Također, tu je još jedna ideja do koje sam došao,
01:50
that was broughtdonio forwardnaprijed by an ecologistekolog --
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a koju je prvi iznio jedan ekolog.
01:54
he basicallyu osnovi did a calculationračunanje where
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On je jednostavno napravio izračun pri kojem je
01:57
he tookuzeo one literLitra of gasplin and said,
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uzeo jednu litru benzina i rekao:
01:59
well, how much carbonugljen it would take, and how much organicorganski materialmaterijal?
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"Koliko je potrebno ugljika i koliko organskog materijala?"
02:03
It was 23 metricmetrički tonstona for one literLitra.
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Radilo se o 23 tone po litri.
02:06
So wheneverkada I fillispuniti up my gasplin,
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Stoga, svaki put kada punim gorivo
02:08
I think of that literLitra, and how much carbonugljen.
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mislim o toj litri i o tome koliko je ugljika potrebno.
02:10
And I know that oilulje comesdolazi from the oceanokean and phytoplanktonfitoplanktona,
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Znam da naftu dobivamo iz oceana i fitoplanktona,
02:13
but he did the calculationsizračuni for our EarthZemlja
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ali on je napravio izračun za cijelu Zemlju
02:16
and what it had to do to produceproizvoditi that amountiznos of energyenergija.
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i koliko joj je bilo potrebno da proizvede takvu količinu energije.
02:18
From the photosyntheticfotosintetskih growthrast,
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Proizvedemo li ih od biljaka
02:20
it would take 500 yearsgodina of that growthrast
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bilo bi potrebno 500 godina fotosinteze
02:23
to produceproizvoditi what we use, the 30 billionmilijardi barrelsbačve we use perpo yeargodina.
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za proizvodnju 30 milijardi barela koje upotrijebimo godišnje.
02:28
And that alsotakođer broughtdonio me to the factčinjenica that
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Ti izračuni također su me naveli na razmišljanje o tome
02:30
this posespoze suchtakav a riskrizik to our societydruštvo.
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koliki rizik to predstavlja za naše društvo.
02:33
Looking at 30 billionmilijardi perpo yeargodina,
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Imajući u vidu tih 30 milijardi barela godišnje,
02:38
we look at our two largestnajveći suppliersdobavljači,
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pogledajmo na primjeru dvaju naših najvećih dobavljača,
02:40
SaudiSaudijska ArabiaArabija and now CanadaKanada, with its dirtyprljav oilulje.
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Saudijske Arabije, te sada i Kanade sa svojom prljavom naftom:
02:42
And togetherzajedno they only formoblik about 15 yearsgodina of supplyOpskrba.
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zajedno jamče tek 15 godina nabave.
02:46
The wholečitav worldsvijet, at 1.2 trillionbilijuna estimatedprocijenjen reservesrezerve,
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Cijeli svijet, sa svojim dokazanim rezervama od 1,2 bilijuna
02:49
only givesdaje us about 45 yearsgodina.
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jamči nabavu tek za oko 45 godina.
02:51
So, it's not a questionpitanje of if, but a questionpitanje of when
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Stoga, pitanje nije "hoće li" nego "kada će" se
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peakvrh oilulje will come uponna us.
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završetak maksimalne točke u proizvodnji nafte obrušiti na nas.
02:56
So, to me, usingkoristeći photographyfotografija --
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Po mom je mišljenju fotografija,
02:58
and I feel that all of us need to now beginpočeti to really
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a držim da se svi mi već sada trebamo zaista
03:01
take the taskzadatak of usingkoristeći our talentstalenti,
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latiti zadatka i iskoristiti naše talente,
03:03
our waysnačine of thinkingmišljenje,
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naše načine mišljenja,
03:06
to beginpočeti to dealdogovor with what I think is probablyvjerojatno
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kako bi se uhvatili u koštac s onim što smatram da predstavlja
03:08
one of the mostnajviše challengingizazovno issuespitanja of our time,
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jedno od najizazovnijih pitanja našeg vremena:
03:11
how to dealdogovor with our energyenergija crisiskriza.
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kako se nositi s energetskom krizom.
03:13
And I would like to say that, on the other sidestrana of it,
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S druge strane, želio bih da mogu
03:15
30, 40 yearsgodina from now, the childrendjeca that I have,
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za 30, 40 godina, svojoj djeci reći,
03:17
I can look at them and say, "We did everything
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da ih mogu pogledati u oči i reći: "Učinili smo sve
03:19
we possiblymožda, humanlyljudski could do,
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što je bilo u našoj ljudskoj moći,
03:22
to beginpočeti to mitigateublažavanje this,
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kako bi to ublažili".
03:25
what I feel is one of the mostnajviše importantvažno and criticalkritično
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Mislim da se radi o jednom od najvažnijih i odlučujućih
03:27
momentstrenutke in our time. Thank you.
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trenutaka našeg vremena. Hvala vam.
03:30
(ApplausePljesak)
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(Pljesak)
Translated by Ljiljana Kragulj
Reviewed by Predrag Pale

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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