What's my angle?

After a long think and some frustration I have decided to explore and research themes of mass production and heavy industry which will run as the linking factor between my four images. I decided on this due to the fact that, when I think of major cities around the world, apart from major landmarks and architecture which we had been told to avoid on ground of it being too obvious, many are not that distinguishable from due to the homogenised, global nature of modern societies and culture. Therefore I felt looking into industry and production would be an effective way of visually communicating this idea. 

However I do realise there is one major issue with this approach to answering the brief. Although I think I will be able to successfully communicate these themes I think it will not be obvious what the cities themselves are but in some ways this could actually play into and reinforce the ideas I want to communicate. 

Edward Burtynsky  - China

Having decided on my theme I came across Burtynsky's China which explores through photography many of the themes I have state above. The artists statement itself  mentions how Burtynsky can '...no longer see my (his) world as delineated by countries, with borders, or language, but as 7 billion humans living off a single, finite planet.' due to '...mass consumerism...'. It focuses on a few key areas of mass production/industry such as coal use/production, steal, textiles, electronics and ship building. 

Although all these are, as the books title suggests, are present in various cities/provinces around China I want to try and find at least 3 cities/areas in other countries rather than focus exclusively on China so as to reinforce the theme of a global society that exists through mass consumerism.

As well as being a great source for research conceptually, this book also contains many phenomenal images that could prove invaluable as reference material for creating my visual responses to this task.