The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics opened this year’s programming with a reception honoring environmental activist and photographer Edward Burtynsky on Sept. 11.

The event kicks off the Mudd Center’s new series “Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact.” The series will include lectures from environmentally-minded researchers from a variety of interdisciplinary studies, such as law and politics. 

Burtynsky’s reception took place in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, which will continue to display his work until April 18, 2026. His photography features aerial views of large-scale mining operations. The exhibit is meant to highlight the impact humans have on the environment, according to the exhibit description.

Melissa Kerin, the Mudd Center’s director, said the installation serves as an “overhead view of the. . . program for the year.” 

Meaghan Walsh, a curatorial fellow for the university’s museums, said she admired the pieces for “playing with opticality and bringing an important issue forward.”

Burtynsky said he wants people to treat nature as a valuable resource. 

On the piece “Swakopmund Salt Works #1,” Burtynsky is quoted saying “We come from nature. There is an importance to [having] a certain reverence… if we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.”

Just outside of the display, next to one of the entrances to the museum, guests have the opportunity to interact with the exhibit by attaching a photo of a favorite natural environment and a note about what the piece means to them to a corkboard.

The opening reception was presented on the same day as a speech given by Thea Riofrancos, an environmental researcher, activist and political science professor at Providence University. Riofrancos discussed the ethics of mineral extraction for industry in her Stackhouse Theater speech.

 Riofrancos said she enjoyed Burtynsky’s work and considered it important. She also said the display is a visual representation of her words and research. Burtynsky’s exhibit poses an important question, Riofrancos said: how much of a right does humanity have to what lies beneath the earth?

The Mudd Center’s series continues with a Sept. 30 screening of “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” an award-winning  documentary about the long lasting impact that humanity has on the Earth.