Burstow worked as an engineer at the Toowoomba Foundry for 15 years, before joining the family business in 1961 to manage its floor covering operations.

With the camera came the message: “Graham, this is your new camera… I want you to discover the world of the 28mm lens.”[5] Burstow credited this lighter weight camera and wider lens with inspiring his exploration of social documentary photography, enabling him to move closer to his subjects, engaging people face-to-face and observing complex social interactions.

[10] The other commissioned photographers were Lin Martin, Rob Mercer, Glen O’Malley, Charles Page, and Max Pam.

[11] The Queensland Art Gallery also included Burstow's work in its 1995 survey exhibition: The Power to Move, Aspects of Australian Photography.

For this exhibition, Burstow, as well as showing recent work, returned to family portraits taken in the 1960s, and for the first time made large inkjet prints, without cropping, from the original medium format negatives.

[15] A retrospective exhibition of Burstow's work, titled Sometimes a Light, was staged in 2002 by the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, curated by photographer Charles J.

[17] With the assistance of his daughter, and author, Narelle Oliver, this research resulted in the exhibition Flesh: The Gold Coast in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, held at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2014.

[18] The exhibition showcased 84 black and white prints and was accompanied by the publication of the book of the same title by the University of Queensland Press.

[19] An expanded iteration of the exhibition, which included an extensive public program of talks and workshops, was curated by Virginia Rigney, and staged at the Gold Coast City Gallery (now HOTA) in 2015.

[29] In 2004 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for "service to photography through administrative roles with photographic associations and as an exhibitor and curator".

"[34] Burstow's legacy also continues through the staging of posthumous exhibitions, the establishment of memorial prizes in photographic competitions, and through the large number of black and white prints that are held in Australian public collections.

[37][38][39] Burstow's annual holiday visits to Queensland's Gold Coast, that began when he was a child and continued with his wife and three children, were crucial for his photography.