Burley is a Toronto-based photographer whose work explores how nature and urban environments intersect. In the mid- to late 1980s, he produced notable series dedicated to specific locales. The Don Valley series, 1981–84, investigates an area of Toronto where parkland, transportation networks, and industry converge. In his ORD O’Hare Airfield series, 1984–88, he photographed the infrastructure of the Chicago airport and its surrounding prairie environment. Burley was one of three photographers to participate in Viewing Olmstead, 1989–96, a commission for the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, which explored the North American parks designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903). Burley is a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Image: Robert Burley, Queen Anne’s Lace, O’Hare Airfield, 1985, chromogenic print, 51 x 61 cm.

For further reading, see:

Burley, Robert. “O’Hare: Airport on the Prairie.” Essay by Larry Viskochil. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1988.

Lambert, Phyllis, ed. Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander and Geoffrey James. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1996.