Every fall, the David Brower Center presents the Art/Act Award & Exhibition, created to honor established artists who have dedicated a significant part of their careers to making art that inspires environmental advocacy and engagement. In its seventh Art/Act show, the Brower Center recognizes internationally acclaimed photographer Edward Burtynsky, who has for decades illuminated the way industry alters and re-forms natural landscapes. Through his striking photographs of the extraction and use of water, minerals, stone, and oil, Burtynsky reveals the scale of human impact on our environment and the resources re-shaped and exhausted by our consumption.

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Top image credit: Detail, Xiaolangdi Dam #2 by Edward Burtynsky, 2011, photo © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto / Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco