Representation and environmental damage The case of Edward Burtynsky

A recent debate in visual studies has focused on the ways in which many authors, artists and scholars structure the narration and representation of environmental damage. The critical literature has focused some of the key question around Edward Burtynsky's visual production. In order to "explore the collective impact that humanity has, as a species, on the surface of the planet; and to "investigate the human systems imposed on natural landscapes", the photographer focuses his attention on two privileged subjects: humanity - or at least its indelible traces - and nature. The binomial man/nature is precisely what posthuman philosophical currents are examining, questioning not only the foundations of modern Western thought but also the representation associated with it, as conceived within the Cartesian model. Specifically, the process of sensitizing the viewer is challenged when entrusted to the exclusivity of the visual sphere with the consequence of not conveying adequate information about the global politics involved. In fact, since visual sphere holds an uncontested primacy - even within the mediatic and ecological discourse - it is necessary to question which tools are the most appropriate for the creation and transmission of a conscious imaginary, detached from the contemporary exasperated anthropocentrism. The intervention aims to investigate the ways in which contemporary visual culture is responding not only to the demands of new phenomenological and anti-human horizons, but also to the concrete need to shape an imagery useful for the maturation of adequate ecological awareness.