Edward Burtynsky has been photographing human industry for decades and a new show focuses on China’s evolving role in global manufacturing.
Captured between 2018 and late 2024, Burtynsky’s work — frequently captured on large format cameras — captures the transformation of China’s domestic production systems to the expansion of its industrial footprint across the African continent.
Currently on display at the Flowers Gallery in Hong Kong, Burtynsky employs his aerial and wide-angle lens perspective to create sweeping images that reveal the scale of industrial development and its impact on the environment.
Inside China, a new generation of robotics and vast battery assembly lines stretch across the frame, as seen in Burtynsky’s 2023 photographs of the BYD manufacturing facility in Jiangsu Province – a major producer of lithium batteries for electric vehicles.
This transformation is contrasted with scenes photographed in Ethiopia and Namibia, where Chinese-owned rail crossings, warehouses, and apparel factories reflect a different phase of industrialization: slower-paced, less mechanized, and still reliant on manual labor.
Now, two decades on from Burtynsky’s earlier documentation of China’s rise as the world’s manufacturing engine, the pace of globalization has accelerated, and the country’s influence across the African continent is profound.
The exhibition offers a glimpse into this evolving relationship, capturing the infrastructure and mega-factories established by Chinese companies and the broader impact of these collaborations on African landscapes and labor systems.
From June 19 to September 28, 2025, The International Center of Photography (ICP) will present The Great Acceleration, the first solo institutional exhibition of Edward Burtynsky’s work in New York City in over twenty years. Curated by David Campany, the exhibition will reveal the depth of his investigation into the human alteration of natural landscapes around the world.
Last year, PetaPixel featured Burtynsky’s large format photos that depict the damage being done to the planet through industrialization. Burtsynky said that he hopes his photographs get people thinking about the collective impact everyone has on the planet.
Image credits: Photographs by Edward Burtynsky
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