Edward Burtynsky: Water traces in intricate detail humanity’s complex relationship with the world’s most vital natural resource through large-scale photographs taken from 2007-2013. This fall, the American University Museum is featuring Water in its virtual series “Contested Space”, which highlights issues surrounding November’s presidential election.

This body of work documents the scale and impact of harnessing and consuming the world’s water supplies in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Iceland, Asia, and India. Burtynsky chronicles the various roles that water plays in modern life: as a source of healthy ecosystems and energy, as a key element in cultural and religious rituals, and as a rapidly depleting resource.

“While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding—and very thirsty— civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways. Over five years, I have explored water in various aspects: distress, control, agriculture, aquaculture, waterfront, and source,” states Burtynsky. “We have to learn to think more long-term about the consequences of what we are doing, while we are doing it. My hope is that these pictures will stimulate a process of thinking about something essential to our survival, something we often take for granted—until it’s gone.”

Burtynsky’s subjects include the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, pivot irrigation sites in Texas, and dryland farming in Spain. In these instances, the artist took to the air using helicopters and a small fixed-wing aircraft, to bring the scale of the human imprint into a more meaningful perspective. He also traveled to photograph millions of people bathing in the sacred Ganges River in India, mega-dam construction on the upper Yangtze and the once-per-year silt release on the Yellow River in China, the precious virgin watersheds of British Columbia, and the dry beds of the Colorado River Delta.

Image: Salinas #2, Cádiz, Spain, 2013. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Kumbh Mela #1, Haridwar, India, 2010. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Dryland Farming #24, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Alberta Oil Sands #14, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Oil Spill #5, Q4000 Drilling Platform, Gulf of Mexico, USA, 2010. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 60 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Flood Control Levee, Maasulakte, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2011. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Rice Terraces #3a, Western Yunnan Province, China, 2012. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Xiaolangdi Dam #3, Yellow River, Henan Province, China, 2011. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Step-well #2, Panna Meena, Amber, Rajasthan, India, 2010. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation / Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, 2010. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.

Pivot Irrigation #11, High Plains, Texas Panhandle, USA, 2011. Digital chromogenic colour print on Kodak Endura Premier paper, 48 x 64 in; framed: 52 3/8 x 68 3/8 in. © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Howard Greenberg & Bryce Wolkowitz, New York.