Edward Burtynsky. “Oil Bunkering #1, Niger Delta, Nigeria” (2016). Photo(s) © Edward Burtynsky. Courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.
The work “anthropocene” was coined to designate the planetary and epochal change we have wrought as a species—mass extinctions, oceans acidified, nuclear weapons unleashed, ice caps melted, mountains flattened and new ones erected. It’s difficult to grasp a crisis so huge, but _Anthropocene,_ a multi- disciplinary project by Toronto-based photographer [Edward Burtynsky](https://www.edwardburtynsky.com), director and filmmaker [Jennifer Baichwal](https://theanthropocene.org/topics/jennifer-baichwal/), and producer and director of photography Nicholas de Pencier— which incorporates a photobook, a documentary film, a traveling exhibition, and an interactive website—is a worthy attempt. The project implores us to see the planet from a perspective in which we are justly implicated in its destruction, and by extension, our own.
Edward Burtynsky. “tetrapods #1, Dongying, China” (2016). Photo(s) © Edward Burtynsky. Courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.
The photo book, set to release November 20th via Steidl, features photographs by award-winning aerial photographer Edward Burtynsky, selections of which are presented here. His large format images, taken from a vantage that reveals the overwhelming scale of humankind’s interventions on the planet, offer a sobering look at a transition to a new era. The images are paired with haunting poetry from Margaret Atwood and illuminating essays from Suzaan Boettger, Colin Waters, and Jan Zalasiewicz, which contextualize the images, bringing a potentially overwhelming phenomenon down to intimate human scale. Looking at the strata in a rock, millions and millions of years compressed into slivers, it’s humbling to imagine eons hence, when the human era could be just one more line. _Anthropocene_ warns us, beautifully and eerily, that we may already be on the way there.
Edward Burtynsky. “Phosphor Tailings Pond #4, Near Lakeland, Florida, USA” (2016). Photo(s) © Edward Burtynsky. Courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.
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