Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario where the GM plant played a big part of his early life. Ed found his calling young. His auto worker dad picked up some used equipment and set him up with a basement darkroom when he was 11. Within a year, young Edward was selling his shots for 75 cents a pop to his neighbours and using the proceeds to buy more film. Today, Burtynsky's work is instantly recognizable. He works big. The prints are of epic proportions - and so are the projects he tackles. Dams, quarries, mines, freeways and factories - no one captures the awesome - and awful - ambition of human industry quite like him. Burtynsky's work was also the subject of the award-winning 2007 documentary, "Manufactured Landscapes" and this year he's being recognized with an "Eco-Hero" award from the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival.