the rhetoric of seduction, the aesthetics of waste, and ecopornography in edward burtynsky’s shipbreaking
;Daniela Fargione
Journal of Geography in Higher Education2016pp. -
182
fargione2016l'analisithe
Abstract
This article analyzes Edward Burtynsky’s Shipbreaking (2009), a controversial photographic project that inquires into the representation of environmental corruption and economic ex¬ploitation faced by disenfranchised communities. The controversy depends on the incongruity between the aesthetization of the gritty subject matter the photographs exhibit (the waste of the world and human waste) and the artist’s stylistic strategy, which may improperly be seen as an example of ecopornography.