God, I wish that I have the time to write about the study day I have been to. This is from last week OCA study day to the Photographer Gallery. If I have time, I will write more about this exhibition some day. I am not writing it all out in one shot. However, there is one thing I want to mention: atmosphere as it presented to the audiences.
The exhibition took place in two floors.
The upper one focus on the structures that are used to drill oil , as well as the advancement (car, highway) the oil bring. The wall of this floor is painted in white and the room overall is brighter amd airy.
The lower floor focus on the aftermath: the destruction on land dur to drilling in Baku, the pile of tires, the graveyard of air planes, oil filters, helicropter. Then there is picture of oil spill and fire. The wall of this floor is painted in grey and thevmood is sufficiently darker.
Whatever the work is, the exhibitor have setup the room in a such way that the lower floor is gloomy. It might be because the aftermath of oil drilling is gloomy, but we don't exactly figure that out: the exhibitor guided us there. Although there is no personal commentary from Burtynsky, it is quite clear what he had in mind.
Most of the photographs are taken during overcast day, early morning or late at night. As a result, the colour looks slightly washed off. There are only two pictures in the whole exhibition are taken in bright daylight where the colour is most saturated. In another word, most of the shots that are tken in an overcast day or near sun rise and sunset, look quite gloomy, or banal. The only two image that is taken in bright day light is the drilling platform fire, and the oil spill. The oil spill image looks the most confusing among all the images because it looks beautiful. If not by reading the description, you won't notice this is actually an oil spill.
I have not got to the photographic content, background and history yet, but the intention is clear. You don't even need to shoot anything, the setup and presentation already set the tone.
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