“Scale Matters” at the Phillips Collection may be modest in size, but its colossal depictions of natural wonder and man-made machinery bring magnitude and dimension to the small exhibit on the museum’s second floor.
The show pairs the works of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky with Minnesota native Lynn Davis. Both capture the grand scale of nature as it takes on new forms, manipulated through the eye of the photographer and at the hands of human industry.
The limited number of works on display leaves one wanting more from both photographers, but as a component of D.C.’s first annual FotoWeek, the exhibit is merely a taste of what the District will have to offer Nov. 15-22.
Burtynsky’s work focuses primarily on the immense impact of humans upon nature. Originally captivated by the landscape and General Motors plant in his hometown of St. Catherine’s, Ontario, he has since moved on to global industrial spaces, exploring the monumental scale of manipulation that has transformed the natural sites he captures.
Burtynsky’s aesthetic inclinations, no doubt influenced by his years spent capturing the raw natural beauty of Canada, penetrate his works, creating landscapes of beauty and intrigue out of these processed geographies.
“Rock of Ages #7” perhaps best captures Burtynsky’s artistic intentions. The photo of a massive quarry in Vermont, which, to Burtynsky, appeared as abstract as a group of upside-down skyscrapers, hints at something both real and imagined. The quarry workers in the photo are miniscule, and though the extent to which mankind has manipulated the massive stones is unmistakable, it appears almost disarmingly unreal.
Burtynsky captures what he views as the modern dilemma-reconciling knowledge of these manipulations with the fact that we partake in their consumption and use on a daily basis. Burtynksy’s construction of beautiful images with potentially disastrous implications perpetuates this moral dilemma, as the viewer marvels at the beauty of each photo and shudders at the environmental realities complicit in each piece.
Lynn Davis takes a more traditional approach to her landscape work, finding inspiration in 19th century photographs as well as through attention to the human form. Her black and white images of icebergs and desertscapes evoke this classic notion of beauty, both in their tonality and in their utter infatuation with form and subdued contrasts. Her photo “Indian Ocean, Zanzibar, Tanzania, #19” depicts an ocean and skyline in muted, washed-out gray tones and the side of an anchored ship, which becomes abstracted and reduced to a sliver of its form at the edge of the image. Inspired by Buddhism, Davis’ works tend to take on this quieter, peaceful quality.
Although the photographers achieve different forms of aesthetic intrigue, it is often disquieting how beautiful these dark moments in human history can be. Lynn’s icebergs undoubtedly evoke global warming by association, but her photos turn them into something akin to a Grecian sculptures, worthy for their aesthetic beauty alone. Burtynsky’s images create such compelling landscapes out of human destruction that one actually forgets the implications of his images. These photographs are undoubtedly beautiful, but all too frequently disturbingly so.
