Edward Burtynsky, Lithium Mines #1, Salt Flats, Atacama Desert, Chile, 2017 (Chromogenic print, 48 x 66.5 inches, edition of 6)

I have come to think of my preoccupation with the Anthropocene — the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet — as a conceptual extension of my first and most fundamental interests as a photographer. I have always been concerned to show how we affect the Earth in a big way. To this end, I seek out and photograph large- scale systems that leave lasting marks. At the heart of my challenge has been the pursuit of vantage points that best enable me to picture the relationship of these systems to the land. 

-–Edward Burtynsky