Dark art: Edward Burtynsky's photographs of the oil industry – in pictures

Socar Oil Fields 3, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006: 'Though he may not know it, Edward Burtynsky is a futurist,' writes Professor William Rees in an essay accompanying Burtynsky’s new book of photographs on the subject of oil. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Highway 1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles California, USA, 2003: “His images of corrupted landscapes portend the likely fate of the planet and the destiny of a rogue species should the world continue to ignore the scientists’ warning.” →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Oil Fields 22, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, 2001: Rees makes Burtynsky, a Canadian born to Ukrainian migrant parents, sound like an environmental activist, but the photographer disclaims the label. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Oxford Tyre Pile 9a, Westley, California, USA, 1999: He strives for objectivity, producing unpeopled large-format photographs that treat industrial landscapes with the same reverence that Ansel Adams – one of his influences – accorded the American wilderness. Oil, on which he has been working for a decade and a half, follows earlier studies of mines and quarries. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Oxford Tyre Pile 9b, Westley, California, USA, 1999: Burtynsky had what he calls an “oil epiphany” in the mid-1990s, when he realised that the internal combustion engine underpinned all the environments he had been exploring in his studies of mines, quarries and railway cuttings. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

VW lot 1, Houston, Texas, USA: That led him to begin photographing what he calls the “landscape of oil” – not just oilfields and refineries, but the vehicles that rely on oil, the road networks necessitated by a car-based culture and the detritus left behind – abandoned oilfields, scrapyards, tyre dumps, used auto engines, discarded oil drums. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Jet Engines, Tuscon, Arizona, USA, 2006: “Our population explosion can be directly correlated to the discovery of oil,” he says, “because we couldn’t provide the food and transportation needed by cities without oil. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Socar Oil Fields 1a, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006: When I look at the world, I see us being led by technology. It gives us all these possibilities, but without anybody being absolutely in control of it. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Socar Oil Fields 1b, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006: It began by humanity grabbing hold of an interesting idea, but now the idea has grown so large that, to me, it represents a reframing of the notion of sublime. It’s now the work of humans that has a fearful, awesome scale." →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Shipbreaking 13, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000: Where Adams once stood in awe of the Yosemite sierra, so Burtynsky now finds himself at once amazed and terrified by vast, dehumanised industrial landscapes. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Ferrous Bushlings 17, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1997: Why is it so important to him to be even-handed in his treatment of these landscapes, to capture their beauty as well as their danger? →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Alberta Oil Sands 8, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007: “I’ve given myself the right to be the observer,” he says, “and am trying to make images that describe how we’re transforming the planet without being judgmental.” His aim is “to make work that raises questions and allows people to enter it from all kinds of different points of view without pre-loading the conversation”. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Densified Oil Filters 4, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1997: Burtynsky’s father worked at the General Motors factory in St Catharines, Ontario, and he admits that sowed the seeds of his interest in industrial landscapes. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Densified Oil Filters 1, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1997: “There were 12,000 people working at the factory. It fascinated me that my dad worked there for years and there was always this pounding noise, but I never knew what happened behind the long brick wall that went along the street. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Bonneville 1, Bonneville, Start Line, Land Speed Trials, Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, 2008: Finally I got to go inside. It was this complex mass of machines and components, and I thought, ‘Wow, all this just to make a car.’” Part of the fascination of his pictures is that he takes us to places we rarely see; worlds divorced from everyday life except for those who work there. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Scrap Auto Engines 11, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1997: His work has particular resonance in Canada, which has traditionally been vocal on environmental subjects but now, thanks to its vast oil sands, finds itself a key oil-producing country. “We are becoming a petro-currency,” he says, “and could become the new sheikhs of the north.” Canada’s Conservative government is streamlining planning procedures and showing less regard for environmental factors than in the past. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Oil Fields 19a, Belridge, California, USA, 2003: Burtynsky, the mask of the artist slipping a little, says he is disappointed there is so little opposition to the government. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Oil Fields 19b, Belridge, California, USA, 2003: So which is it really – artist or activist? “Listen,” he says, “I have two children, so I’m worried about the world they’re about to inherit. These are realities we all have to face.” Blood may be thicker than art, or even oil. →
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London

Socar Oil Fields 6, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006: Oil is published by Steidl/Corcoran, priced £85. An exhibition opens at the Photographers’ Gallery, London W1, on 19 May.
Photograph: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto/Flowers, London