Text by Deborah Bräutigam, Edward Burtynsky, Marc Mayer, Azu Nwagbogu.
A freshly designed edition of Burtynsky's panoramic photographs of severe resource depletion across Africa
Over the course of seven years, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky (born 1955) traveled across sub-Saharan Africa, capturing incidences of terraforming, extraction, urbanization and deforestation. Shot at a bird's-eye view, his photographs reveal the patterns and scars of the human-altered landscape. While initially appearing to form an abstract painterly language, these man-made marks evince tremendous destruction to the natural world. Out of print since 2023 and now re-released with a new design, African Studies documents the unsettling reality of sweeping resource depletion in Africa. The photobook culminates with China in Africa: a series depicting the economic inroads being made by China, including the interiors of gigantic newly built manufacturing plants. As with all of his photographs of landscapes impacted by human industry, Burtynsky's collection impresses upon the viewer the dire need for global initiatives to protect what stands to be forever lost.
STATUS: Forthcoming | 6/30/2026
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Published by Steidl. Text by Deborah Bräutigam, Edward Burtynsky, Marc Mayer, Azu Nwagbogu.
A freshly designed edition of Burtynsky's panoramic photographs of severe resource depletion across Africa
Over the course of seven years, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky (born 1955) traveled across sub-Saharan Africa, capturing incidences of terraforming, extraction, urbanization and deforestation. Shot at a bird's-eye view, his photographs reveal the patterns and scars of the human-altered landscape. While initially appearing to form an abstract painterly language, these man-made marks evince tremendous destruction to the natural world.
Out of print since 2023 and now re-released with a new design, African Studies documents the unsettling reality of sweeping resource depletion in Africa. The photobook culminates with China in Africa: a series depicting the economic inroads being made by China, including the interiors of gigantic newly built manufacturing plants. As with all of his photographs of landscapes impacted by human industry, Burtynsky's collection impresses upon the viewer the dire need for global initiatives to protect what stands to be forever lost.
