Manufactured Landscapes

12 Apr 2007 Category: Conscientious Design, Features, Film / Animation, Photography, Worldwide

Manufactured Landscapes

Edward Burtynsky: "Nickel Tailings #34", Sudbury, Ontario, Canada - documenting the devastating effects of mankind, now brought to film by director Jennifer Baichwal with 'Manufactured Landscapes'.

Canadian Edward Burtynsky takes beautiful large-scale photographs of landscapes that have been industrially altered by mankind to the very extreme. The documentary Manufactured Landscapes by Toronto-based filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal now visits, along with the photographer, places in China and Bangladesh and shows how these amazing pictures are taken. It gives you with a weird as well as surreal experience of the grotesque and grim consequences of mass production. For example, fifty percent of all world‘s computers end up in China, amongst many other used materials… You don’t have to be too ecologically minded, but this documentary will leave you thinking, no doubt. PingMag talked to Jennifer Baichwal about her consciousness-raising film.

Written by Verena


Director Jennifer Baichwal (left) and Edward Burtynsky. (right) on a roof in Wushan, China. (Photo by Sanjay Mehta)

Jennifer, how did the whole Manufactured Landscapes film project start?

I have known Edward Burtynsky’s work for a long time and became really interested when he started doing the quarry photographs. I find them such a beautiful metaphor, it is the literal hole in the ground that we create when we need the materials for civilization. The project then came to me when the photographer, who traveled around with Edward, approached our producing partner Daniel Iron with around 60 hours of home movie footage and was looking for someone who could make this into a film. So I was watching the footage, realizing that I might need something else. I started meeting with Edward and the whole project came together very quickly: incredibly, we managed to raise all of the money in Canada in about four months.

Thousands of people work in this area. The opening sequence of ‘Manufacturing Landscapes’ deals with the inside of the huge iron factory - Edward Burtynsky: “Manufacturing #18″, Cankun Factory, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China.

How long did the shooting take?

We were in China for three and a half weeks in 2005, shooting on Super 16 with heavy camera work. Before that, we took pictures of Edward’s lecture at the TED conference. And we incorporated the black-and-white photography that was taken by said photographer with his video cam.


This is where it starts… Edward Burtynsky: “Shipyard #11″, Shipyard at Qili Port, Zhejiang Province, China.

This isn’t the usual portrait of a person, it’s about his subjects…

I didn’t want to make a conventional portrait of an artist. What would be really important is to use the photographs as a departure point and extend their meaning into the medium of film. They are trying to shift consciousness non-didactically: they don’t want to preach or give you a message, instead just inviting you into an arena of reflection about your own impact on the planet. Also, if you look at Ed’s photographs closer you see the details - hundreds of people with their activities. We were trying to follow these narrative threads with the film, because with the close-ups of people’s faces we wanted to dignify the individual in this completely undignified landscape.

… and this is where it ends - Edward Burtynsky: “Shipbreaking #49″, Shipbreaking in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Which scene was the most significant, or difficult, to shoot for you?

The opening dolly shot was a big moment. [For our readers: the sequence shot takes nearly 7 minutes at the beginning of the film.] It took all day to shoot in this huge iron factory and as soon as we were finished I knew that this was going to be the opening. I found it the perfect translation of Edward’s work into film, because the only way to convey the scale of the factory in a time-based medium is: you have to sit through and watch station after station of the assembly. You think this is just the opening sequence, but then it goes on and you get bored and start looking at people’s faces. Then you get saturated in the idea that this place is enormous. And it’s only after all this that Edward’s voice comes in [as voice-over]. Also, as the whole film is fairly meditative, the opening shot also serves to slow you down.

The making of a large-scale photograph - Edward Burtynsky (left) and Peter Mettler (director of photography) at Cankun Factory, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China. (Photo by Sanjay Mehta)

I found it incredibly moving to watch the sequence at the Three Gorges Dam in China: how people have to tear down their own homes to pave what would be the waterway for the ships to go through. And they are getting paid for the bricks by the kilo…

It looks like a post-war landscape, when you realize: people are tearing their own houses down solely by hand, brick by brick. The other tragedy is that so much of the most fertile farmland in China was lost, let alone the whole civilization and culture. It is so arrogant to change the earth so radically - for electricity.

This is not a war site, these are the preparations for the Three Gorges Dam - Edward Burtynsky: “Three Gorges Dam Project, Feg Jie #5″, Yangtze River, China.

There are so much more quite telling and intense scenes demonstrating the environmental impact. Surely you were a conscious person already, but did your attitude change even more during the filming in China?

China is an overwhelming country, to begin with, and the scale of everything is massive. I have never been in factories of these sizes like the one we went before. It makes 20 million flat-irons a year. The aluminum recycling yard we visited is the third largest in the world. They ship everything from all over the world over there. Seeing the Sisyphean task of these people sorting through these enormous piles of aluminum, I became much more aware of the particularities of the cycles of consumption and waste that we all engage in - and how devastating they are.

The Three Gorges Dam Project will be completed soon - Edward Burtynsky: “Dam #6″, Yangtze River, China.

I guess we just can’t blame China trying to keep up with the industrialized nations…

China has done what every other country has done: industrialize, get incredibly filthy, make money, then clean up and export the dirt to another country that hasn’t gone through the same process yet. The problem is that the scale is so much bigger in China and now it’s under pressure because every dirty industry in the world has been invited to set up there. There is a chance that whole zones will collapse before they will be able to deal with it. Which was so incredibly sobering…

“… the ground we stood on had no organic matter left in it.” Edward Burtynsky: “Bao Steel #8″, Shanghai, China.

I wonder how people can actually live in these areas…

In one scene we were in the largest coal distribution center of China, where it gets transported throughout the country with trucks, trains, ships. As far as you could see there were these massive piles of coal. As we drove a bit away we realized that we had a nuclear power plant in one corner and the huge coal in the other - with in between all this construction going on, and the ground we stood on had no organic matter left in it: it was like ash. But this wasn’t some industrial part away from residential civilization. It was in the midst of apartments with thousands of people living there. I just thought: we are all headed for this if we don’t stop.

Taking a look at the contact prints - always observed by a governmental person (far right): Noah Weinzweig (China line producer, at left) and Edward Burtynsky at the Tianjin coal distribution center, North China. (Photo by Peter Mettler)

How did audiences react after the screenings in several festivals you attended?

First, Manufactured Landscapes was edited for about eight months, a long process of relative isolation. When it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival [which got him an award as best Canadian feature] that was the first time that more than two people other than me saw it: it was pretty heavy watching it and there was this kind of silence after the last scene. But then people clapped and everything went well. Since then I watched it many times with audiences and always people ask afterwards: ‘Where do we go from here?’

This is where 50 percent of all world’s computers end… Edward Burtynsky: “China Recycling #9″, Circuit Boards for recycling in Guiyu, Guangdong Province, China.

Finally, tell us, please, about your next project…

Currently we are trying to support the release in the States and Europe, and in between we are shooting our next movie: about people being struck by lightning. I see lightning as a kind of metaphor for the paradox of being singled out by chance. We are doing various interviews, for example with novel author Paul Auster who experienced a lightning as a child and the person in front of him died. I think it must have affected his work to a great deal, like his obsession with chance and fate. I have never been satisfied with scientific documentaries as they all follow a conventional formula dispensing information that is unquestioned. So this will be an art film about a scientific subject.

Lightning is uncontrollable. Manufactured landscapes are the opposite…

Not exactly. We started something in motion which we are no longer in control of. But we are very much responsible for it!

Trying to grasp the scale of it all: Peter Mettler (director of photography, at left) and director Jennifer Baichwal at a dam site. (Photo by Sanjay Mehta)

Thank you so much, Jennifer Baichwal, for your great documentary! I guess nobody will watch Manufactured Landscapes unmoved. It was quite sobering as well as surreal, indeed.

Further screening info: there might be a release soon in Europe and Asia, check out the Mercury Films site or Celluloid Dreams. Also, Manufactured Landscapes is available on DVD, once more from the great Mongrel Media. You can get it via Amazon Canada.

37 Comments

  1. The 3 gorges Dam photo is HDR, right? it looks like it comes from a pop sci-fi movie.

    Great photographer. I hope he is going to Montreal

    Posted by: heri on April 12th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

  2. l

    Posted by: heri on April 12th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

  3. Outstanding pictures.. I might buy the book or DVD :)

    Posted by: Julio on April 12th, 2007 at 11:42 pm

  4. places like that three gorges pic, really creep me out.

    Posted by: 100kr on April 13th, 2007 at 12:54 am

  5. Beautiful, striking shots!

    Posted by: Bill Olen on April 13th, 2007 at 1:29 am

  6. I doubt the 2 gorges pic is HDR. He’s always using film throughout the movie - hence the polaroid proofs. I think it’s just a very well exposed large-format photo.

    Posted by: jim on April 13th, 2007 at 8:43 am

  7. OK I missed one of the gorges!

    Posted by: jim on April 13th, 2007 at 8:44 am

  8. [...] Toronto-based filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal followed the photograph Edward Burtynsky in China and Bangladesh and made the documentary “Manufactured Landscapes”: interview on PingMag. [...]

    Posted by: tokoloten » Manufactured landscapes on April 13th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

  9. wow.

    Posted by: harry on April 13th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

  10. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Manufactured L… ‘Canadian Edward Burtynsky takes beautiful large-scale photographs of landscapes that have been industrially altered by mankind to the very extreme.’ (tags: photography China) [...]

    Posted by: Heraclitean Fire » Links on April 13th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

  11. [...] TED Talks上有更多视频。 几个推荐 ~~~~~~~~~ Paul Bennett: Design is in the details（来自IDEO的creative director Paul Bennett） Saul Griffith: Hardware solutions to everyday problems（发明家 Saul Griffith） Edward Burtynsky: TED Prize wish: Share the story of Earth’s manufactured landscapes（最近PingMag的一篇文章介绍Manufactured Landscapes） [...]

    Posted by: TED Talks- Chris Bangle: Great cars are Art · [ i D | 公 社] on April 15th, 2007 at 12:54 am

  12. Thank you pingmag for the heads up on the upcoming Burtynksy/Baichwal film. His work is becoming more and more important as nations continue to exploit the planet in light of economic gains. Go to http://www.lensculture.com/burtynsky.html to view additional Burtynsky images and listen to a great audio interview with the artist.

    Posted by: sean on April 18th, 2007 at 4:22 am

  13. [...] 文章来源 #wz img{padding:1px;margin:0px;border:1px solid #EEE;}快速链接:http://diskdreamer.yo2.cn/go/51576.html [...]

    Posted by: 关灯看电影 » Blog Archive » 《人造风景》创作谈 on April 18th, 2007 at 4:58 am

  14. Stunning images and a great read. Thanks for that and feel free to post to http://www.photographyvoter.com

    Posted by: Paul on April 18th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

  15. [...] TED Talks上有更多视频。 几个推荐 ~~~~~~~~~ Paul Bennett: Design is in the details（来自IDEO的creative director Paul Bennett） Saul Griffith: Hardware solutions to everyday problems（发明家 Saul Griffith） Edward Burtynsky: TED Prize wish: Share the story of Earth’s manufactured landscapes（最近PingMag的一篇文章介绍Manufactured Landscapes） [...]

    Posted by: 设计界 » Blog Archive » TED Talks- Chris Bangle: Great cars are Art on April 20th, 2007 at 8:02 pm

  16. [...] Interview & Photos Trailer Edward Burtynsky Website [...]

    Posted by: flegblog » Blog Archive » edward burtynsky: manufactured landscapes on April 21st, 2007 at 8:18 am

  17. This is incredible - the children of the world (and myself) should have the chance to view this film. Just reading about it here is arresting. The photos capture the mind in thought.

    Posted by: Lisa on May 7th, 2007 at 5:38 am

  18. [...] PingMag is showing some thoughtful pictures by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. They are also presenting an interview with Toronto-based filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal who has made a documentary film, called Manufactured Landscapes, which shows how these great pictures by Edward Burtynsky has been taken. The pictures give a (as PingMag puts it) “surreal experience of the grotesque and grim consequences of mass production”. Follow the PingMag link above for the complete text about the film by Jennifer Baichwal. Below I show you a couple of the pictures by Edward Burtynsky. They keep me wonder how much our poor earth can take… [...]

    Posted by: David Report blog » Industrially altered landscapes on May 11th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

  19. [...] Here is an interview with director Jennifer Baichwal which Pingmag.jp posted back in April. And in June, we get to go see it at Film Forum. [...]

    Posted by: SCTY » Manufactured Landscapes, Film Forum on May 16th, 2007 at 10:07 pm

  20. [...] PingMag曾有一次专题，是关于电影（记录片）“人造地貌”Manufactured Landscapes。我们尝试在这里基于原文来进行翻译。 [...]

    Posted by: 碎片 在线杂志 » PingMag专题：“人造地貌（Manufactured Landscapes）” on May 29th, 2007 at 1:48 am

  21. I have a friend who was struck by lightening while visiting a native american reservation traditional ceremony. if you want to interview, feel free to contact me and i’ll give you her contact info

    Posted by: palmer davis on June 11th, 2007 at 12:15 am

  22. [...] Pilfered without shame from Ping Mag [...]

    Posted by: The Serif - Your daily dose of design inspiration - The Serif on June 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm

  23. [...] director Jennifer Baichwal follows around photographer Edward Burtynsky, as the latter takes pictures of nature’s transformation through industry in China (mostly) and [...]

    Posted by: OpenMarket » “Manufactured Landscapes”: the artsy cousin of “An Inconvenient Truth” on July 20th, 2007 at 5:53 am

  24. [...] 以下是基于原文的翻译。 . . “镍的残渣#34”；Edward Burtynsky（加拿大安大略人）拍摄。他的摄影记录了人类影响力的破坏性，现在拍成了电影，由Jennifer Baichwal执导，名为“人造地貌（Manufactured Landscapes）”。 [...]

    Posted by: 3个大不六 » Blog Archive » PingMag专题：“人造地貌” on August 10th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

  25. If you are interested in Japan Landscape photography, please check out http://www.johninjapan.com/

    Posted by: HDR on August 17th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

  26. scary shots but what can anyone do

    Posted by: sarah on August 26th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

  27. Holy crap that’s nice. Is that HDR? I have HDR on my site http://www.hdrjapan.com

    Posted by: Okinawa on September 19th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

  28. comment_fashion

    Posted by: Serrioplasin on October 24th, 2007 at 5:58 am

  29. [...] TED Talks上有更多视频。几个推荐~~~~~~~~~Paul Bennett: Design is in the details（来自IDEO的creative director Paul Bennett）Saul Griffith: Hardware solutions to everyday problems（发明家Saul Griffith）Edward Burtynsky: TED Prize wish: Share the story of Earth’s manufactured landscapes（最近PingMag的一篇文章介绍Manufactured Landscapes） [...]

    Posted by: TED Talks- Chris Bangle: Great cars are Art - EBUYSON on November 9th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

  30. Amazing stuff

    Posted by: Travel to Okinawa on November 24th, 2007 at 6:02 am

  31. [...] pingmag.jp has another great article up. Please take the time to have a look. They have quickly won a place in my heart w/ a succession of 3-4 great articles. [...]

    Posted by: Manufactured Landscapes on May 1st, 2008 at 5:32 am

  32. [...] “TED Award” pour sa prestation. Burtynsky, à qui on a entre autres consacré un documentaire primé mondialement, excelle à photographier dans toute sa beauté, son ingéniosité, sa [...]

    Posted by: La force des idées « Le monde change…et pourquoi pas? on September 18th, 2008 at 3:34 am

  33. [...] spectrum of your more characteristic work, that one image spoke volumes. As you stated in your interview with PingMag, Jennifer, facial close-ups “dignify the individual in this completely undignified [...]

    Posted by: Manufactured Landscapes « JazzzyTina on January 2nd, 2009 at 6:26 am

  34. Simply beautiful

    Posted by: japan pictures on May 16th, 2009 at 8:43 am

  35. [...] Read the complete article… [...]

    Posted by: Manufactured landscapes. « o elogio da sombra on June 18th, 2009 at 12:31 am

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