Simon Roberts (photographer)

Simon Roberts (born 5 February 1974) is a British photographer. His work deals with peoples' "relationship to landscape and notions of identity and belonging."[1]

Simon Roberts
Simon Roberts in his Brighton studio, 2022.
Born (1974-02-05) 5 February 1974
Croydon
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhotographer
Websitesimoncroberts.com

Roberts' books include Motherland (2007), We English (2009), Pierdom (2013), and Merrie Albion (2017). His work has been exhibited internationally.

The Royal Photographic Society has awarded him an Honorary Fellowship[2] and its Vic Odden Award,[3] and he was commissioned by the UK parliament Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art as the official 2010 British Election Artist.

Life and work

Roberts studied a BA Hons in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield (1996).[4] He currently lives in Brighton, England.[5]

Between July 2004 and August 2005 Roberts travelled throughout Russia,[6] taking in 65 destinations from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.[7] This resulted in the book and exhibition Motherland and the exhibition Polyarnye Nochi.

Between August 2007 and September 2008 Roberts travelled throughout England in a motor home using a large format camera capturing people at play, and exploring the relationship between people and the places they visit. This resulted in the book and exhibition We English.[8][9] In the "Observer critics' review of 2011" Sean O'Hagan included the We English exhibition at Flowers East in London in his top 10 photography exhibitions of the year.[10] Parr and Badger include the book We English in the third volume of their photobook history.[11]

Roberts was commissioned by the UK parliament Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art as the official Election Artist to document campaigning activity around the country in the run-up to the 2010 General Election.[12] Roberts travelled the country, again in a motor home, using an old plate camera to photograph from the elevated position of its roof.[13] This resulted in The Election Project touring exhibition and The Election Project Newspaper publication (which was made available free to download in 2012).

Roberts has also made other series of work: Polyarnye Nochi (polar nights),[14] Star Chambers (2011),[15] Landscapes of Innocence & Experience (2011), Credit Crunch Lexicon (2011–2012), Let This Be a Sign (2011–2012),[16] Pierdom (2011–2012),[17] The Last Moment (2011–2012) and XXX Olympiad (2012).

Publications

Publications by Roberts
  • Motherland. London: Chris Boot, 2007. ISBN 978-1-905712-03-8.[n 1]
  • We English. London: Chris Boot, 2009. ISBN 978-1-905712-14-4.[n 2]
  • Pierdom. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2013. ISBN 978-1-907893-40-7.[17]
  • Landscapes of Innocence & Experience. Eton: Verey Gallery, 2014. Work from various series including We English, The Election Project, XXX Olympiad and Pierdom. With an essay by Martin Caiger-Smith, "Settlement". Catalogue for an exhibition held at the Verey Gallery, Eton College, UK, 2015.
  • Merrie Albion: Landscape Studies of a Small Island. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2017. ISBN 978-1-911306-19-1. With an introduction by David Chandler and texts by A. L. Kennedy, Alex Vasudevan, Carol Ann Duffy, David Matless, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Ian Jeffrey, Irenosen Okojie, Nikesh Shukla, and Tristram Hunt.
  • Green Lungs of the City. Paris: Bessard, 2018. Edition of 250 copies.

Newspapers, zines and postcards by Roberts
  • The Election Project Newspaper. Self-published. 32-page Berliner format newspaper.[n 3]
    • First edition, 2010. Edition of 3000 copies.
    • Second edition, 2013. Edition of 2000 copies.
  • This Is a Sign. Self-published, 2012. 32-page newspaper. Edition of 2000 copies.[18][n 4]
  • Credit Crunch Postcards. 2014. According to Roberts's website, "A pack of original postcards featuring different extracts of text from Simon's Credit Crunch Lexicon, launched to coincide with the exhibition 'Show Me The Money: The Image of Finance 1700 to the present' at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art."
  • Boxing Boys: Britain 1997–1999. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies.
  • The Gray Friars of Canning Town. Southport: Café Royal, 2017. Edition of 150 copies.

Publications with contributions by Roberts
  • Generation ’74. Kaunas, Lithuania: Kaunas Photo festival, 2015. ISBN 978-609-8032-10-9. Edited by Ángel Luis González and Irina Chmyreva. Includes profiles of and interview transcripts with eleven European photographers born in 1974: Simon Roberts, Nick Hannes, Kirill Golovchenko, Przemyslaw Pokrycki, Tomáš Pospěch, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Vitus Saloshanka, Gintaras Česonis, Borut Peterlin, Pekka Niittyvirta and Davide Monteleone. Edition of 500 copies.
  • Unfamiliar Familiarities—Outside Views on Switzerland. Zürich: Lars Müller, 2017. Edited by Peter Pfrunder, Lars Willumeit, and Tatyana Franck. ISBN 978-3-03778-510-2. A six-volume set: one volume by Roberts and the others by Alinka Echeverría, Shane Lavalette, Eva Leitolf, and Zhang Xiao, plus a text volume in English, German, and French. Published to accompany an exhibition at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Switzerland and Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • The Great British Seaside: Photography from the 1960s to the Present. London: National Maritime Museum, 2018. ISBN 978-0948065989. Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, London.

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions or exhibitions during festivals
  • Unseen, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2008. With work by unrepresented Chinese photographers and Roberts, Martin Kollar and Julia Fullerton-Batte.[30]
  • This Land Is Your Land, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2008. Work by Roberto Bellini, Peter Granser, Caroline Hake, Christian Jankowski, Simon Roberts, Greg Stimac, and Bryan Zanisnik.[31]
  • Motherland, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland, 2008.
  • Visions of Our Time, Deutsche Börse Art Collection, Berlin, 2009.
  • Motherland/Homeland, EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Firenze, 2010. Alongside work by Francesco Carone.
  • Landscape Studies of a Small Island, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2014. Includes work from Motherland, We English, The Election Project, Pierdom and other series.[32] Curated by Karen McQuaid from The Photographers' Gallery, London. Part of the Britain in Focus theme of Photobiennale 2014, the UK-Russia Year of Culture.

Awards

Collections

Roberts' work is held in the following permanent collections:

Notes
  1. Its website is motherlandbook.com.
  2. Its website is we-english.co.uk.
  3. Its website is theelectionproject.co.uk/blog/election-project-newspaper and simoncroberts.com/shop/election-project-newspaper/ where it was available to download.
  4. Its web page is simoncroberts.com/shop/this-is-a-sign-newspaper/.

References
  1. "Simon Roberts". Simon Roberts. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  2. "Honorary Fellowships (HonFRPS)". Royal Photographic Society. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  3. "Vic Odden Award", Royal Photographic Society. Accessed 21 November 2017.
  4. "Wish you were here – Simon Roberts", George Eastman House. Accessed 19 January 2014.
  5. "Facebook profile of Simon Roberts". Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  6. "Motherland – Simon Roberts". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  7. Groskop, Viv (17 March 2007). "In pictures - Simon Roberts's collection of photographs of Russia, Motherland, is unexpectable, says Viv Groskop". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  8. "Audio slideshow: The English at play". Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  9. "Simon Roberts: We English". National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  10. O'Hagan, Sean (11 December 2011). "Series: Observer critics' review of 2011 — The best photography of 2011: Sean O'Hagan's choice". The Observer. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  11. Parr, Martin; Badger, Gerry (2014). The Photobook: A History Volume III. London: Phaidon. p. 176. ISBN 9780714866772.
  12. "Photographer Simon Roberts is official election artist". BBC News. 20 March 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  13. "Election 2010: South Yorkshire". Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  14. "Telegraph article on Polyarnye Nochi". Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  15. Simon Roberts (29 April 2011). "Days of Reckoning". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  16. "Festival Diary - Let This Be a Sign - Simon Roberts". London Festival of Photography. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  17. Teicher, Jordan (9 December 2013). "Britain's Beloved Victorian-Era Pleasure Piers". Slate. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  18. "Simon Roberts: This is a Sign". The Photographers' Gallery. Archived from the original on 18 December 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  19. O'Hagan, Sean (12 April 2010). "Photographer Simon Roberts puts political England in the frame". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  20. "Simon Roberts: We English". National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  21. List of past exhibitions, Klompching Gallery. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  22. Page about exhibitions by Roberts, Robert Morat Galerie. Accessed 19 January 2014.
  23. "Audio slideshow: The English at play". BBC News. 23 April 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  24. loic. "Simon Roberts - We English". www.festivalpluiedimages.com. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  25. Coomes, Phil (24 May 2012). "Let this be a sign". BBC. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
  26. Smith, Amy (29 August 2013). "Art Diary: Sea here". Camden Review. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  27. "ArtSlant - Friday 8th November - Saturday 21st December, Klompching Gallery, Simon Roberts". ArtSlant. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  28. Exhibition notice, Paris Photo. Accessed 19 January 2014.
  29. "[The 60th Program] Simon Roberts". 広島市現代美術館. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  30. MOCA Shanghai 2008 mocashanghai.org Retrieved on 18 January 2014
  31. MOCP Chicago 2008 MOCP.org Retrieved on 18 January 2014
  32. "Simon Roberts: Landscape Studies of a Small Island". Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  33. "Winners". Ian Parry Scholarship. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  34. "World Press Photo - List of winners 2010". Retrieved 13 February 2010.
  35. "Collection News", p.36 within Pallant House Gallery Magazine 25, here at Issuu.com. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  36. Terry Grimley, "A photographic collection to be proud of", Birmingham Post, 19 November 2009. On the web, divided into three pages; see the third of these. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  37. Simon Roberts at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany
  38. "Works by Simon Roberts". George Eastman Museum. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  39. Search results for "roberts", MoCP collection catalogue. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  40. Names starting with "R", collections catalogue, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  41. "Photographer Simon Roberts selected as 2010 British election artist Archived 5 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine", parliament.uk, 22 March 2010. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
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