Robert Burley


Robert Burley is a Canadian photographer of architecture and the urban landscape. He is based in Toronto, Canada, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Life and work

Robert Burley grew up in rural Ontario in the town of Picton. He studied Media Studies at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto and later pursued graduate studies in photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
While living in Chicago, Burley trained briefly with Hedrich-Blessing Photographers before returning to Toronto to establish Design Archive, a firm specializing in architectural photography.
From 1997 to 2021, Burley was a professor at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts where he helped create new programs and resources related to photography. These include his contributions to the creation of Ryerson Library's Special Collections, the acquisition of the Black Star Collection, and his role as one of the founding Program Directors of the graduate program in Film + Photographic Preservation. 
Throughout his career, Burley has completed numerous commissioned and self-directed multi-year projects realized as books and exhibitions. These include: