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The International Center of Photography Presents

Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration

The International Center of Photography | 84 Ludlow Street, New York 

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On View June 19–September 28, 2025
Public Opening June 19, 5–8PM

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Edward Burtynsky, Salt River Pima and Maricopa Indian Community / Suburb, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, 2011

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The International Center of Photography (ICP) is pleased to announce The Great Acceleration, the first solo institutional exhibition of world renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky’s work in New York City in over twenty years. The exhibition will reveal the depth of his investigation into the human alteration of natural landscapes around the world, showing their present fragility and enduring beauty in equal measure.

Curated by David Campany, Creative Director at ICP, this retrospective exhibition will present over seventy photographs, including many of Burtynsky’s landmark images, some of which have never previously been exhibited, along with three ultra high-resolution murals. The exhibition will also include a visual and narrative timeline of Burtynsky’s creative life.

Intentionally scheduled to extend through Climate Week NYC in September 2025, The Great Acceleration will serve not only as an urgent call for action, but will also give visitors the opportunity to appreciate the sublimity that remains in the landscape, while deepening our understanding of the challenges that confront us today. In this way, The Great Acceleration upholds ICP’s long-standing and core commitment to present concerned photography that can inspire new audiences.

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“ICP has long championed ‘concerned photography’—imagery that informs and inspires action—which aligns deeply with my own practice,” said Edward Burtynsky. “At such a critical moment in time, I hope this work sparks meaningful dialogue about our relationship with the planet and brings more people to this awareness.”

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The exhibition title, The Great Acceleration, is an established term used to describe the rapid rise of human impact on our planet according to a range of measures, among them population growth, water usage, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, resource extraction and food production, each of which Burtynsky has photographed the outward signs of at length and in great detail over the past forty years. From open pit mines across North America to oil derricks in Azerbaijan, from rice terraces in China to oil bunkering in Nigeria, Burtynsky has travelled across the world and back again as part of his restless and seemingly inexhaustible drive to discover the ways, both old and new, that organized human activity has transformed the natural world. Though already unified by both the precision and formal beauty that Burtynsky deploys to create each photograph, The Great Acceleration further underscores that, like their respective subjects, each project remains fundamentally interconnected.

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“ICP is dedicated to championing work that addresses critical issues of our time, so we are delighted to exhibit Edward’s work,” said David Campany, ICP’s Creative Director. “Conceived especially for our largest galleries, The Great Acceleration will present suites of monumental images that draw attention to the severity of the impact we are having on the planet, while also offering a contemplative space for reflecting upon photography’s role and potential today.”

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Since the 1980s Burtynsky has remained steadfast in his commitment to document the evolving relationship between contemporary life and the landscapes being remade by its demands. Beginning in his native Canada, the exhibition quickly moves to establish the international scope of his work while also highlighting the recurring subjects and themes that have continued to occupy him—including the intertwining of fossil fuels and consumerism, global infrastructure, precarious labor conditions and the challenges of mass recycling, among others—regardless of where he has worked or with what new technologies.

Moving through the exhibition, we follow Burtynsky into marble quarries and factories, into mining towns and industrialized farms. With him as our guide, we traverse across mega cities and barren landscapes, across scrap yards and factories. Though widely known for his aerial photographs that present epic views of the landscape, within which human presence can be seen but loosely felt, Burtynsky just as often documents our collective activity up close and with disarming intensity. Included in this exhibition are rarely-seen portraits he has made over the years of workers from around the world, from factories in China to the shipbreaking coasts of Bangladesh, which remind us of the intimately human scale at the heart of what his photographs often show us from great distances.

The physical scale and thematic scope of The Great Acceleration will unfold throughout both floors of ICP’s galleries, making it an exhibition that demands an in-person experience, one that allows us to sit with the overwhelming beauty of the natural landscape just as we consider the necessary changes to our myriad ‘business as usual’ operations that will empower and inspire a sustainable future.

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Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of humans on the planet. Burtynsky’s photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world. Major (touring) exhibitions include: BURTYNSKY: Extraction/Abstraction (2024) which premiered at London’s Saatchi Gallery; Anthropocene (2018); Water (2013) organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art & Contemporary Art Center, Louisiana; Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; China (2005 five-year tour) and Manufactured Landscapes (2003) at the National Gallery of Canada. Burtynsky’s distinctions include the inaugural TED Prize in 2005, which he shared with Bono and Robert Fischell; the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts; the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles; the Roloff Beny Book award and the 2018 Photo London Master of Photography Award. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Arts & Letters Award at the Canadian Association of New York’s annual Maple Leaf Ball and the 2019 Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography. In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship and in 2022 was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award by the World Photography Organization. In 2022 he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and was named the 2022 recipient for the annual Pollution Probe Award. Most recently he received the 2023 PHotoESPAÑA Award for Professional Career and was awarded with the 25th edition of the Pino Pascali Prize. Burtynsky was also a key production figure in the award-winning documentary trilogy Manufactured Landscapes (dir. Jennifer Baichwal, 2006), Watermark (dir. Baichwal and Burtynsky, 2013) and ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch (dir. Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Burtynsky, 2018). All three films continue to play in festivals around the world. Burtynsky currently holds nine honorary doctorate degrees.

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Exhibition Support

Exhibition support for Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration is generously provided by Jane and Raphael Bernstein and Gail O’Brien. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Exhibitions at ICP are supported, in part, by Caryl Englander, Almudena Legorreta, ICP Board of Trustees, Shubert Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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Canada Council for the Arts

The Canada Council for the Arts contributes to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and supports its presence across Canada and around the world. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” The Council’s grants, services, initiatives, prizes, and payments support Canadian artists, authors, and arts groups and organizations. This support allows them to pursue artistic expression, create works of art, and promote and disseminate the arts and literature. Through its arts funding, communications, research, and promotion activities, the Council fosters ever-growing engagement of Canadians and international audiences in the arts. The Council’s Public Lending Right (PLR) program makes annual payments to creators whose works are held in Canadian public libraries. The Council’s Art Bank operates art rental programs and helps further public engagement with contemporary arts through exhibition and outreach activities. The Council is responsible for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which promotes the values and programs of UNESCO to contribute to a future of peace, reconciliation, equity, and sustainable development. 

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The International Center of Photography

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture. Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974 to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. Through exhibitions, education programs, community outreach, and public programs, ICP offers an open forum for dialogue about the power of the image. Since its inception, ICP has presented more than 700 exhibitions, provided thousands of classes, and hosted a wide variety of public programs. ICP launched its new integrated center at 84 Ludlow Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in January 2020. ICP pays respect to the original stewards of this land, the Lenape people, and other Indigenous communities.

Visit icp.org to learn more about the museum and its programs.

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AAQ / Resource: Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects

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AAQ / Resource: Ben Krupinski Builder

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AAQ / Resource: Riverhead Ford

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