Photo credit, Edward Burtynsky
Over the past 40 years, Edward Burtynsky has photographed the impact of human industry on the planet. For his latest collection, African Studies, he traveled the continent taking photos from above. He spoke to the BBC's Mary Harper.
In many ways, it was China that made me interested in the African continent.
About twenty years ago, I photographed the extraordinary explosion of manufacturing in China, factories included.
Carbon copies of these factories are appearing across the continent today and the resemblance to what I saw decades ago is uncanny.
As China moves to become a services economy, it is relocating its mega-factories to countries like South Africa, embarking on huge infrastructure projects and tapping the continent's resources to fuel its growth.
Most of these photos were taken from the sky, from planes, helicopters and drones.
They reveal the design, structure and scale of the marks that man inscribes on the earth, the extraordinary panoramas that are not visible at ground level.
Like extractive industries, agriculture also elicits abstract images when viewed from above.
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I wonder if the tea pickers and rose growers are aware of the extraordinary geometry and symmetry of the fields in which they work.
Those who work the land, whether fertile or parched, sometimes transform its beauty but do not destroy it.
In South Africa, farmers are trying to curb desertification by digging large ruts in the earth that collect water when it rains, allowing plants and trees to grow in a harsh environment.
African lands are full of resources, some extracted using modern technology, others using centuries-old techniques.
In Ethiopia, it's like going back in time by harvesting salt with pickaxes in temperatures of 50°C.
Every day, salt is loaded onto camels, the desert boats.
At Danakil we had to give up our GPS instruments. Since the city is about 125 meters below sea level, the devices got confused, thinking we were working under the ocean.
One of the highlights of my trip was visiting the salt ponds of Senegal, the largest salt producer in West Africa.
Harvesters hand dig shallow depressions which are then filled with salt water from nearby canals.
Once the water evaporates, minerals, pigments and various algae combine with reflections from the sky to create a spectacle for the eye. The complex organic structures become almost hypnotic.
The brutal result of corporate profits, poverty, ingenuity and ruthless piracy in the oil-rich Niger Delta easily ranks among the most deeply disturbing and devastated landscapes ever created by humanity.
Experiencing this landscape was a major turning point in my understanding of the degree of defilement we are capable of inflicting on our planet as a species.
A striking difference between Chinese and African factories is that in Africa, the bulk of the workforce comes from local towns and villages, while floor managers and site managers are most often Chinese.
Faced with the exodus of populations to cities, China has embarked on a construction fever that often encroaches on valuable rural land.
The Tsaus Mountains of Sperrgebiet, Namibia, are some of the most haunting and beautiful land formations I have ever photographed.
Their topographical structures and the richness of their colors seem to transcend the idea of landscape and enter a purely abstract domain.
Homo sapiens began migrating out of Africa around 200,000 years ago. In the 21st century, we come full circle and return to one of the last places on earth to be swept away by the relentless machinations of the human industrial complex.
The African continent is a fragile and final frontier.
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