China

Edward Burtynsky's China explores the rising tide of industrial growth in China. He photographs varied subjects such as steel mills, manufacturing facilities, shipyards, recycling depots and urban renewal projects, and returns to the Three Gorges Dam, where the last stages of the most ambitious engineering project in history are rendered in arresting, monumental views. Certain photographs in the series, such as those of ship building and recycling deposits, subtly reference his earlier investigations, yet he also charts new territory in startling images of massive manufacturing plants filled with a seemingly endless number of identically-clad workers. Burtynsky's imagery consistently explores the intricate link between industry and nature, and, as Marc Mayer writes in his essay for Edward Burtynsky: China, "Burtynsky's views of China are powerful precisely because of the rigor with which he has conducted his career in art so far."