Robert Burley is a Canadian artist whose photographs of the visual landscape have been celebrated internationally.  His work concentrates on the relationship between nature and the city, architecture and the urban landscape. Over his 40-year career Burley has undertaken long-term visual investigations of subjects such as  Chicago’s O’Hare Airfield, the designs of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the Great Lakes and Toronto’s natural parklands.

He has also photographed urban spaces and structures through commissioned and self-directed projects that include:  the disappearing industrial buildings of the photographic industry, the character of urban sprawl and heritage architecture of all kinds. Burley’s photographs have been extensively published and can be found in numerous museum collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée de l’Elysée, George Eastman Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and Fotomuseum Antwerp (FOMU). Books featuring the work of Robert Burley include Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander, and Geoffrey James (MIT Press 1996); The Disappearance of Darkness: Photography at the End of the Analog Era (Princeton Architectural Press 2012); An Enduring Wilderness: Toronto’s Natural Parklands (ECW Press 2017) and Accidental Wilderness (U of T Press 2020).

The recipient of numerous awards, Burley was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018 and a Senior Mellon Fellow (Canadian Centre for Architecture) in 2010. He is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery.