Born in Picton, Ontario, in 1957, the photographer Robert Burley has been a passionate observer of the built environment for the past three decades. His works explore the relationships between nature, architecture, and the urban landscape. In his earliest projects, Don Valley, Ontario and O’Hare, Chicago (both from the 1980s), he set out to capture the continuity between landscapes both natural and artificial.
Robert Burley works with a 4 × 5 camera. The clarity and precision of his unique vision, matched by his exceptional technical ability, result in works of great sensitivity. Burley’s photographs reveal his continuing fascination with the subtle interplay of natural landscapes and the built environment.
The CCA has been collecting Burley’s work since the beginning of his career and currently holds some 350 of his photographs. The CCA has also commissioned him for several projects, such as CCA Garden (1990) and Viewing Olmsted (1988–1994). The Olmsted commission, a major project undertaken with the photographers Lee Friedlander and Geoffrey James, provided three strikingly different interpretations of the pioneering American landscape architect’s work. Commenting on this formative experience, Burley describes time as an essential element of his work, while colour is “a kind of subtext to the image.”
In 2002, the artist donated a series on Toronto synagogues to the CCA. The photographs are a profound meditation on the buildings and their spaces.
- Septembre 2009